CAFE, revisited

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(EricGo @ Jun 22 2007, 10:23 AM) [snapback]466369[/snapback]</div>

Fleet avg mpg will increase 10 mpg by 2020. There was a provision that it would increase 4%/yr after that, but that language was taken out of the bill as a compromise.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Jun 22 2007, 12:06 PM) [snapback]466399[/snapback]</div>

Indeed it was.

I'm a bit disappointed that language which would have made aftermarket grille guards/brush bars illegal was also dropped from the bill.

 

That religious "club" on the Fox channel will be fighting this tooth and nail. Seems it's unchristian to force them to give up their big SUVs because of all of the children with backpacks and sports equipment they need to haul.

Now I look in our school parking lot and it's full of full size SUVs.....all with single occupant drivers. Some have no children at all. And they're all pristine....never spent a day camping of offroading in their automotive lives.

 

Funny how the talk of "individual rights" always seems to support the rights of only the people most vocal about "individual rights."

It's appalling that one's right as a car owner to, for example, put a brush guard on one's honkin' SUV, is more supported than one's right as a pedestrian to not be sliced and diced by this vehicle-borne mandolin.

I'm scared about what's going to happen when more and more of our individual "freedoms" infringe on more and more of our "freedoms to not be infringed upon."

It's going to get nastier and nastier, I fear...

 

Soon there will be a law suit. Someone will get mauled and sue the driver for having the thing. Then they'll sue the mfg of the grill.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(EricGo @ Jun 22 2007, 10:23 AM) [snapback]466369[/snapback]</div>

I believe that the MPG increases start in 2011 and the increments are decided by legislators near that time.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Boulder Bum @ Jun 22 2007, 03:39 PM) [snapback]466546[/snapback]</div>

Doesn't the NHTSA have the final say on if a manufacturer even has to adhere to the standards, or not?

What it would take to actually persuade the NHTSA to act in this fashion, I have no idea (although the skeptic in me does have a few thoughts on the subject).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Jun 22 2007, 05:13 PM) [snapback]466566[/snapback]</div>

it took me almost seven months to receive permission from the NHTSA to remove my airbags. I can't begin to number the people I had to go though, forms I had to submit, and written explanations I had to provide and I am simply an individual... I can't imagine the amount of effort to get everyone there to work together on something... I bet they take an hour to figure out what to order for lunch...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(EricGo @ Jun 22 2007, 09:23 AM) [snapback]466369[/snapback]</div>

I agree mostly. There will always be loopholes. Personally, I like "feebates" and a gas tax. I am a conservative non-tax and spend kind of guy, but I have to favor a gas tax because I'm also anti-subsidy and believe that all costs for an activity should be borne out by users, to the extent practical / possible. Right now, the cost to obtain and secure oil is something like $5+ per gallon (see www.setamericafree.org). And that does not include costs of externalities such as pollution generated. I'm also of the strong opinion that we are financing the very terrorists we claim to be fighting with each gallon we buy. So let's buy less as a national security imperative. A high enough gas tax will do that. All gas tax proceeds should go toward paying costs of our military to be in the middle east as well as financing alternative fuels R&D.

Finally, tax the crap out of old, inefficient, highly polluting vehicles and penalize the crap out of anyone found to be boosting engine output on street vehicles more than 10% or so above OEM.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tnthub @ Jun 23 2007, 02:04 PM) [snapback]466926[/snapback]</div>

Why would you have the airbags removed? And will the next owner of the car be informed there are no airbags? I imagine the expense of putting them back in is prohibitive. And not having them anymore is going to severely impact the resale value. Then there's the just plain safety issue. I specifically bought the Prius because it had all of the airbags. Why did you remove them?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TimBikes @ Jun 24 2007, 02:57 AM) [snapback]467184[/snapback]</div>

Here here. We should be paying the real cost of petrol so that people understand the situation and don't have a warped sense of the economics of oil.

 

When CAFE standards were enacted in the 1970's following the OPEC embargo, they actually led to increased fuel consumption. While CAFE did create more fuel-efficient cars, it also increased the public’s incentive to drive because of the cheaper fuel costs. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Americans are driving twice as many miles as they did than in the 70’s. History will repeat itself.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Swanny1172 @ Jul 17 2007, 10:23 PM) [snapback]480687[/snapback]</div>

But is it because of CAFE standards or because of something else? I think the ever expanding and sprawling suburbs also have to take some blame.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zenMachine @ Jul 18 2007, 12:09 AM) [snapback]480703[/snapback]</div>

Suburban sprawl is definitely a factor. However, the suburbs grew as a result of cheap gas. As one of the professors in an urban planning class that I took in grad school used to say, if we really wanted to redevelop the cities, then all we would need to do is raise the price of gas to $5.00/gallon. Of course, this was 10 years ago, so the price would be higher now, but the dynamic remains the same.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Swanny1172 @ Jul 17 2007, 10:31 PM) [snapback]480714[/snapback]</div>

It seems to me that gas was going to be cheap regardless of our demand back then. Gas was really cheap prior to 1973 and FE was terrible. Supply outstripped demand by loads back then. Geopolitics was the limiting factor. CAFE sort of put us on the right track, but the Europeans and Japanese got it right by taxing petrol at a high rate instead of playing the CAFE game. American's are tax averse to a fault, however, and so CAFE was the only realistic way for us to tackle the problem.