Quote:
Originally Posted by Suzie's Dad
The problem is that a significant majority of the population -- fed by a cadre of left-leaning do-gooders -- has bought in to the whole limited resources / CO2 / global warming / alternative energy / ethanol / we're-running-out-of-oil mindset. These people vote. Politicians do what get them votes. So politicians are falling all over themselves to see who can write the most draconian laws to mandate high MPG, low emissions (not a bad thing in itself, but dumb when carbon dioxide is classed as an 'emission'), ethanol-in-gas, and so on, at the same time as they work overtime to prevent production of oil from massive reserves in pristine arctic wilderness, and dump all over Canada for our 'dirty' oil sands.
We can rant as much as we like -- and who here disagrees with what you say, PalBay? -- but it looks more and more as if heavy gas guzzlers such as the X6 are going to become less and less socially acceptable, whether we like to drive them or not. What happens when some bozo California politician manages to implement some kind of gasoline rationing in support of spending billions on hydrogen filling stations? It won't matter how affluent you are, you'll get the same gas ration as Joe Tree-Hugger in his Prius.
Maybe Israel has the answer. They have announced that they are going to build a couple more large nuclear power plants to supply an order of magnitude more electricity, then they will start encouraging the use of electric vehicles through tax breaks and subsidies, gradually weaning the country off their dependence on oil supplied by countries who are not exactly their best buddies. If that means we all get to drive Teslas, maybe all is not lost!
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Interesting. I think for the most part American's still don't know what a gas guzzler is. They think if it is large, it sucks too much gas. In most cases they would be correct.
However, I think the majority would be surprised to learn that a tyical SUV achieves the same gas mileage as a BMW M3/5/6, Subaru WRX, Corvette, Mustang, Minivan, or most any other vehicle with 300+HP. I think folks would be surprised that lawn mowers do not have to pass emissions standards, and that motorcycles are actually very inefficient and pollute like crazy. A typical motorcycle weighs around 700lbs and gets 60MPG. That is equivalent to a 3500lb car getting 12MPG.
American's have no concept of where our fuel is going. No clue a 30ft power boat burns 20-40 gallons per hour. No clue a corporate jet with 3 people on board can burn 5 gallons per mile. No clue that evey day airlines dump 1,000's of lbs of fuel into the atmosphere. There seems to be no issue with folks heating and cooling 3-10k square foot homes with only 2-3 people living in them.
The sad truth is SUVs are really not the issue. However, I think the hate for them comes from drivers in general who do not like seeing a big vehicle in front of them on the roads so the MPG is something that is focused on.
If SUVs were gone tomorrow, it would be obvious to many that ignorance was focused on wrong thing. It is not the size of the vehicle. It is the fuel consumed compared to the size of the vehicle. When a a small sports car gets the same mileage as a suburban, and companies sell a lot more sports cars than SUVs, is this an SUV issue?
Much like our illegal alien problem, we find ourselves once again not addressing the real issues and focusing on the symptoms. China for example wants to double the tax on SUV's to 40%. Does it not make more sense to double the tax on all vehicles that do not meet a certain MPG rating?