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... of Automobiles
Sep 9/05: Back in Gas!
Yepper, they're
all freakin' out, even as the shorts are getting freaky on oil. The Kansas City
Star, ever an historically hysterical publication, says it's your fault,
America:
Drivers pay steep price
Driving along America's highways and byways this Labor Day weekend will be more
expensive than ever. Hurricane Katrina has dramatically reduced the nation's
supply of gasoline, boosting prices to $3 a gallon and even higher. The damage
caused by the hurricane highlights a discouraging fact about the nation's fleet
of automobiles: Motorists are paying a high cost for years of buying cars,
sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks that are less fuel-efficient.
Americans drive their vehicles an average of more than 12,200 miles a year, and
those automobiles average 22.3 miles a gallon. When gasoline cost $2 a gallon --
as it did just last March -- motorists were on pace to spend $1,100 for the 550
gallons they'd need to make it through 2005. But the sudden surge to $3 a gallon
could boost the cost of driving by 50 percent, or $550 a year. That's a lot more
money for fuel -- and a lot less for discretional expenses such as eating out
and leisure-time activities.
Congress has failed to provide any strong leadership on the issue of gasoline
mileage. For years it has refused to pressure automobile companies to increase
their products' fuel efficiency. Incredibly, the 27.5 miles-a-gallon standard
set more than 15 years ago for new passenger cars is still in effect. The U.S.
auto industry has shown in the past that it can improve gasoline mileage by
using technology and different materials. During the 1970s and early 1980s, for
instance, fuel efficiency for new vehicles almost doubled.
Vehicles that get better gasoline mileage provide motorists the single best way
to combat higher prices at the pump. The increased sale of hybrids will help
ease the problem, especially as automakers (including Ford's Claycomo plant)
produce a wider number of hybrid models. Still, it will take years for Americans
to buy enough fuel-efficient cars, trucks and sport-utility vehicles to make a
positive difference in U.S. gasoline use.
So where was the complaint when gasoline broke the $2.00
barrier that The Star sets as the example of affordable gasoline? Back
then, consumers made a rational choice. And, it appears, that was, or is now,
okay with The Star. Never mind that the nation well before flipped out
over gasoline breaking the one dollar barrier, and The Star's beloved
CAFE standards were adopted in reaction to it -- not in anticipation.
CAFE rules are hopelessly backwards. When gas is cheap, the consumer defies it,
and forces the manufacturers to defy it, too. When gas is expensive, CAFE
suddenly makes sense. No, it doesn't make sense. It's just more stupid meddling
that the market already has figured out.
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