Obama is making impossible demands - Uh-oh...

Update: Here's another article on the same subject...

Looks like Obama is getting a little unrealistic already, as evidenced by this article, which says that he is contemplating allowing states to set their own fuel-economy standards. He forgets that he lives in America.

This is the perfect opportunity for the government to start training the American people away from gas-guzzling cars and trucks and into more sensible vehicles. The problem is that they can't MAKE the public BUY them! How can they pretend to legislate an economy target when the average is determined by the cars that people actually make the decision to BUY?

All California has to do is make the rich people buy Priuses instead of Bentleys and you've got a 30% fleet reduction right there. Will they do it? Nah. Can you put a Prius engine in a Bentley? Only if you don't want to go anywhere. Luxury cars are big and heavy and require larger engines and thus more chemical energy as a means of propelling them. You cannot make a 6,000 lb car get 30 mpg and also get up to highway speed within a week.

The only way for the government to control mileage is to set a minimum. Say 20 mpg. This will, of course, make all new large luxury cars and exotics illegal. Think the public will go for it? In this economy... maybe... but I seriously doubt it.

I guess what I find silly is the whole idea of trying to affect the average. It's obvious. Provide incentives to buy the more efficient cars and penalties for the less efficient ones. If $5000 for every Hummer sold goes into a discount on someone's Yaris (or Cavalier, if you want to keep the repair industry happy) you'll see the national fleet economy average drop in a hurry. The vehicles already exist that will lower the average, it's just that the average buyer has no reason to want them. My personal "fleet" consists of 5 manual-transmission four-cylinder vehicles. The largest engines of the bunch are 2.0 litres. 3 of them were made in the 70's and thus pollute more in the way of HC, CO and NOx, but their CO2 emissions are the same as ((or actually a little less than) the modern cars. I bring the average down. Dudes who have pickup trucks for no discernable reason (Unless they unzip, I suppose) increase the average. Fix THAT problem and you save a whole lot of CO2.

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