[Common Tator]

When the choice is dead people or the enviornment, the left comes down on the side of the enviornment... and not on the side of the people that died. .... That is as long as the cremation place actually cremates the bodies.

[newzhawk]

Unfortunately- we can't afford an SUV for our teen- and have to buy a smaller affordable car with airbags- they are right - the kids don't want to drive "gramma"s car. AlGore wants to force us all to drive small cars to make it "fair" but this will never happen and they know it. Does anyone else's local paper always mention when an SUV is in an auto accident- ours lately has made an issue of this- it is the non use of seatbelst that is usually the one cause of death around here(too many passengers per belts)

[Gritty]

When they say, "Save The Planet" they don't mean the people living on it.

[NMC EXP]

I wonder what the watermelons would think of my "light truck": TRUCK, CARGO, 4WD, 3/4 TON, W/WINCH, M37B1

It is a 1962 Dodge M37B1 military 3/4 ton pickup truck. It weighs 5917 lbs, and gets 7.5 mpg. The flathead six puts out only 60 hp, but the weight and the 5.86 gears make it like the fuel.

As to safety features...there are none (well, the waterproof ignition could come in handy in a flood). However, in a head-on with one of these high end SUV yuppie mobiles, your last thought as you are impaled on the steering column and your skull is caved in by the bullet proof steel dash will be that the driver of the other vehicle got his too, even with air bags, crush zones, leather and all.

Regards

J.R.

[Willie Green]

CAFE and its small cars have not reduced overall U.S. gasoline and diesel fuel consumption as hoped. A strong economy and growing population have increased consumption. The U.S. imports more oil now than when the standards were imposed.

This is very true. Despite close to 30 years of promises, Congress has failed miserably to improve our energy self-sufficiency.

U.S. Petroleum & Crude Oil Overview
(thousand barrels per day)

	1960	1965	1970	1975	1980	1985	1990	1995	2000
U.S. Crude Oil Production	7,035	7,804	9,637	8,375	8,597	8,971	7,355	6,560	5,834
U.S. Petroleum Imports	1,815	2,468	3,419	6,056	6,909	5,067	8,018	8,835	11,093
Total	8,850	10,272	13,056	14,431	15,506	14,038	15,373	15,395	16,927
Imports as % of Total	20.5	24.0	26.2	42.0	44.6	36.1	52.2	57.4	65.5

The one thing that COULD be done to reduce our dependency on petroleum would be to construct modern, efficient, electricly powered mass-transportation systems in our nation's most densely populated regions and urban areas.

What is High Speed Ground Transportation?

High-speed ground transportation (HSGT)-- a family of technologies ranging from upgraded existing railroads to magnetically levitated vehicles-- is a passenger transportation option that can best link cities lying about 100-500 miles apart. Common in Europe ( http://mercurio.iet.unipi.it/home.htm) and Japan (http://www.japanrail.com),HSGT in the United States already exists in the Northeast Corridor (http://www.amtrak.com/news/pr/atk9936.html) between New York and Washington, D.C. and will soon serve travelers between New York and Boston. 

HSGT is self-guided intercity passenger ground transportation that is time competitive with air and/or auto on a door-to-door basis for trips in the approximate range of 100 to 500 miles. This is market-based, not a speed based definition. It recognizes that the opportunities and requirements for HSGT differ markedly among different pairs of cities. High-speed ground transportation (HSGT) is a family of technologies ranging from upgraded steel-wheel-on-rail railroads to magnetically levitated vehicles.

The Federal Railroad Administration has designated a variety of high density transportation corridors within our nation for development of HSGT:

.

For more information, please visit the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA’s) High Speed Ground Transportation Website

[Dick Bachert]

"...in a YUUUGOOO...."