The choices we make today effect us for many tomorrows
jimlockey said:
It's going to get worse.
That private meeting Congress had with the oil companies is going to cost us more when we drive. Now they are adding fuel shortages to the eqution.
I well remember the so called shortages in 1973 & 1974.
The current mess we are in is of extreem prices and low CAFE numbers is due to the greed of 2 American leaders , Reagan & Bush Jr . Reagan dismantled CAFE and the repulbicans in congress & Bush Jr have made sure it stayed dismantled .
The rise of diesels in the USA & Canada can be traced directly to the Ford & Carter administrations and their energy policies of the late 70s .
Reagan dismantled our energy policy for short term gain . He made a deal with the oil rich Saudis' to flood the market with oil for the pushing of a arms sale deal to the Saudi government through the road blocks that our government had been useing to block for security reasons for his gain and our lose . The real purpose of this deal made in secret was to force energy prices to artificially low levels to help the economy and garrantee his re-elction . The price of energy dropped to $2 to $3 a barrel causing a our economy to spike for a short time allowing it to look much better than it actually was .
As a result CAFE standards increases were dropped and the diesels that were required to be sold to meet increases in CAFE mpg were gone within 18 months . And fleet mpg in the US have been dropping every since . Leading to 2 wars in the middle east over our oil supply . If the CAFE standards had been carried through from the late 70's to today we would have a fleet mpg of 40+ now instead of our current levels of low 20's highway and mid 10's city .
The proof of this exists in England , Europe , & Japan where policies were carried through that have lead these countries to a 40 + mpg average in their fleet since the mid 90's . Made in large part possible because of the wide spred use of diesel power in all vehicals . Japan which has little if any oil of their own decided early after the oil price spike in the early 70's that they had no choice but to reduce their energy waste .
In 1984 every car company sold diesels in the entire range of vehicals they sold in the US to meet yearly CAFE standards increases . After the irresponsible actions of the Reagan administration , there was no encintive to increase mpgs so all the diesel options were gone in the US by early 1986 . VW had a loyal diesel following by then and has tried twice since then to bring the diesel option back to us here , failed once in 1989 to 1992 and had to withdraw the diesels in the US in early 1992 until mid 1996 and the jury is still out on this time as well . In fact it really is Looking like diesels are gone again starting in 07 .
Without government leadership on this issue , I see no way for this to ever take off as a real option to replace the poluting , wasteful gas engines with clean high mpg diesel engines here in the US . Which would reduce our need to import oil from the middle east to almost nothing .
We have 1/5 of the world population , but we use 3/4 of the worlds energy . And The lame argument of "We need all that oil to run our economy" , can be dispelled by a look at the Japanise enconomy of the early 80's and how much less oil they used at their high output levels of goods compared to us here .
As long as our government is for keeping gas prices artificially low and giving up to $100,000 tax credits on 4 mpg 7,000+ lb. SUV's , and little to no tax credits to people like me for driving VW diesels , TDI's that get 40 to 50 mpg through the use of clean diesels , then high mpg diesels have no chance here . Hybrids can never equal what diesels can give today with todays diesel tech. .
These are the facts that I witnessed in the eighties that have lead us to the dangerous place that we live with today . I didn't agree with the US acting like we were on a island not connected to the rest of the world then , and I really don't think that it is a good idea today .
Every emissions rule that has been written in the last decade and a half by the congress that has been aimed at killing off the diesel tech in favor of keeping the SUV & Truck loophole . Result is the current CAFE numbers that are lower than they were 20 years ago .
I might add not a single US auto maker builds or sells any vehicles that have to meet the ever stronger light duty diesel rules . VW & MB are the only car companies that have tried to jump through the ever smaller hoop the the US congress keeps creating .
Every give away of stonger regulation of the light duty auto diesel emission was aimed directly at making the air look cleaner on paper while continuing to let the loophole vehicles polute at late 70s & very early 80s levels for as long as possible . And I might add that the rules were specifically written to exclude lupehole class diesels !!!!!!!
We don't get cleaner air by banning lite duty diesels that are not even being sold in the US by the big 3 . But you and do loose the MB diesel & our TDIs as an option because of it .
Diesel tech might now be in fact be approaching the time that these rules can be met , but the rules had nothing to do with cleaning up the air .
Above is the real reason for them being passed , a way to keep the truck & SUV loophole . And our government doese care nothing at all about improving fleet mpg and passed rules year after year banning any increase in CAFE US fleet mpgs .
In 1992, the Clinton Gore book, Putting People First, advocated raising the passenger car standard to 45 mpg.
In 1993, President Clinton tried to raise gas taxes to reduce the deficit. This would have also encouraged people to drive more efficient vehicles via market forces. His own party, and Max Baucus (D-MT) in particular, refused to go along with this, and forced him limit the increase to 4.3 cents/gallon.
1993 also saw the introduction of the all carrot no stick PNGV project to at least push the country twords some sort of alternat energy .
In 1994, NHTSA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to explore raising the CAFE standard for light-duty trucks. But auto lobbyists didn't like this idea so they convinced Congress to include provisions in the FY1996 Department of Transportation Authorization (P.L. 104-50, H.R. 2002) prohibiting the use of authorized funds to promulgate any CAFE rules."
This was part a push by the Clinton addministration in that year to get diesels in the US fleet to improve CAFE numbers , US fleet mpgs . This was the climate that the first 50 mpg VW TDIs were sold in the US in the 96 , 97 in the B4 Passat & A3 Golf , Jetta . The A4 TDI Jettas & Golfs that were introduced in early 99 were also in the spirit of the introduced rules in the late 90s . As VW has proved high mpgs can be gotten in any size of car or SUV with the use of high tech diesels today not somewhere in the future .
"The same prohibition was also included in the FY1997 (P.L. 104-205) and FY1998 DOT Appropriations (P.L. 105-66). The same CAFE freeze rider was attached to the FY1999 Appropriates bill as well."
This is a policy that was squarely aimed at giving the big 3 a break at the high mpg diesels expense . And until the price of oil went through the roof the Bush administration policy on oil use was " Use all the oil today for we die Tomorrow" . And stayed that way until the polls started dropping due to high oil prices at the pump . His recent conversion to conservation is only to save his and congresses neck . Nothing more !!!
And I don't care about republican or democrat . I liked Ford , & Bush Sr along with Carter & Clinton . I go on policies not party . I dispised Reagan on his short sited policies and I feel the same about Bush Jr . At least 50 % of the country dislikes Bush Jr , I'm not alone . He may not be a bad guy , but he is a piss pour leader .
