A new bill is being introduced to the senate
right now that attempts to address our fuel economy issues in the United States.
Here's some info about it. Not surprisingly, the
bill is not enough. Why? Three major
reasons:
1. The Goal is not ambitious
enough when you look at the long-term. Chances are, without any legislation,
most consumer vehicles will surpass 35mpg by that time. Good fuel economy is
starting to sell and our oil acquisition problems are not going to get easier in
the conceivable future, so demand for higher fuel economy vehicles is going to
increase. Consumers will be wanting vehicles that get way better than 35mpg by
2025. Reducing our oil consumption by 2.5 million barrels per day sounds like a
big number, but it's not very significant in the end. 2.5 million barrels is
about 12% of the 2005 daily oil consumption rate. If trends continue, 2.5mb/d
will probably be an even smaller percent of 2025 oil consumption. Why wouldn't
new fuel economy standards make a larger effect on overall consumption? The
average age of cars in the U.S. is going up- meaning people are keeping their
cars longer-- which means that any increase in fuel economy is going to effect a
very small percentage of vehicles. The only way of increasing the effect of fuel
standards on new vehicles is to force older cars out of service (which hurts the
poor) or raise the standards (which hurts people who spend their money on new
cars).
2. It's not a progressive plan.
If we are going to change fuel economy standards for the future, we need to
assume that over the next 100 years, the average miles-per-gallon consumption of
a new vehicle will approach infinity. In other words, stop using oil, stupids
(SUOS.. hmm... not quite the slogan I'm looking for). Not only is it likely that
oil will cost considerably more in 2025 and after, but we might not have enough
oil to supply our needs at any price. If we lower consumption faster and plan on
continually using less oil (in other words, plan on adding 1.5-2mpg to the
standard per year), we can push back the day when we run out. It might end up
costing the consumer less if we make a progressing standard, too-- car companies
are likely to moan and complain when we have to up fuel economy standards
*again* in 2015 or sooner- if we plan to increase now, they can plan to deal
with these standards changes in their long-term business
plans.
3. This is the most important
one. If the government changes their target number for fuel economy, who cares?
The current passenger car standard is essentially ignored by the industry
because there aren't significant fines or relevant consumer information to back
up these standards. We need three different kinds of laws to make fuel economy
standards actually count: taxes that charge car manufacturers (lots) for
producing sub-standard vehicles (per-car produced), fines that come with a
vehicle sticker price to make consumers actually notice they are buying a
sub-standard vehicle, and annual taxes for people who buy sub-standard vehicles
and increase our fuel demand in the process. I guess this makes me a
tax-and-spend liberal. There is absolutely no excuse for the blatant disregard
for standards in the current car market, and if we don't change anything, the
industry will not get in line. Who cares about setting new standards when the
current ones are already ignored? The current system doesn't properly assign
cars to their "use type" which determines which cars are subjected to which
standards . Cars like the H3 are
exempt
from current fuel economy standards and classified as "special use vehicles"--
yet there are no restrictions on who can purchase these vehicles. The industry
doesn't care- they don't have to pay when they make an inefficient SUV, they
make a profit if the make the car, so why get responsible?
Consumer vehicles need to be regulated
heavily, and vehicles that are designated as "special use" need to be actually
designed for something more important than hauling 72 ounces of soda from your
local convenience store to the mall and back home again. And honestly, with the
size of the H3 and similar vehicles, we really should be requiring a different
class of driver's license to own and operate something so large and powerful. If
my next door neighbor buys a gas guzzler, they should be well aware they are
raising gas prices for
everyone.
The more we consume nationally, the more we pay per barrel-- it's basic supply
and demand.
Why Should I
Care? In the end, consumer vehicles
account for about 44% of annual oil consumption in the United States. That makes
it the largest most accessible market in which we can lower national oil
consumption- one set of federal laws can effect millions of cars and change the
pace of our oil consumption single-handedly. Choosing to gently *suggest* we
increase our efficiency *a little bit* is not taking full advantage of the huge
chunk of consumption that consumer vehicles represent. Consumer vehicle
consumption
is
the bulk of oil consumption in the United States- there is no other area in
which we can decrease our barrels per day without hurting businesses
considerably... and I know you wouldn't want that to
happen.
In short, the bill makes it
sound like our senators are doing something responsible, but in the end it's
merely a tip of the hat to the industry. I mean, come on- if Joe Lieberman is
behind it, the bill can't be too progressive, can it?
They're not doing enough (duh)