Quote:
Originally Posted by 636blurr
You just do not get it, the least of the worlds worries right now is how cheap gasoline is. People are going to be having trouble affording out current cheap gas, so raising them really accomplishes nothing except setting people back.
again, lead by example, untell you chest pounding libs man up and go all green, well, zip it.
Feel Free to Participate in this thread I started a couple of weeks ago DO you use alternative Energy? |
We do a bunch of different things to avoid excess energy use, although it could be more. Getting the Husqvarna running again is partly because it's fun, partly because it will get over 50 mpg. If we needed another vehicle, a diesel would be high on the list, and I would be looking into converting it to run on waste vegetable oil. We don't need one, and if you trace the cycle, buying a newer more efficient car is probably just as damaging to the environment as recycling the old one endlessly. There's no reason to remelt steel if it's still functioning reasonably well in the shape it's already in.
Back to the original point. Right now, cheap gasoline is having a countercyclical effect, and it's going to help get us out of the recession we are in a bit quicker. So, raising the price of fuel, however it happens, isn't good in the very short term. Over the next five years, we should ensure efficiency by phasing in some way of making fuel more expensive. It doesn't have to be taxes. Fuel mileage standards won't do it- those are government mandates, and they don't do anything except cause a lot of finger pointing from all sides. Higher fuel prices will bring market forces to bear on efficiency. I am convinced American engineering is equal or superior to anything else, but we have had the wrong incentives all along. Given the right incentives, whatever's left of the big three will come up with all kinds of innovations. We just have to make sure the incentives are there.