Bush signs bill boosting fuel standards (A Law That Kills)

AP ^ | 12/19/07 | H. JOSEF HEBERT

[Aristotelian]

WASHINGTON - President Bush signed into law Wednesday legislation that will bring more fuel-efficient vehicles into auto showrooms and require wider use of ethanol, calling it "a major step" toward energy independence and easing global warming.

The legislation signed by Bush at a ceremony at the Energy Department requires automakers to increase fuel efficiency by 40 percent to an industry average 35 miles per gallon by 2020. It also ramps up production of ethanol use to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022.

[Aristotelian]

This is deadly legislation, literally. The evidence is ample that fuel economy requirements have killed motorists. Bush has just signed death warrants for thousands more Americans.

For example, a Heritage Foundation report says: The evidence is overwhelming that CAFE standards result in more highway deaths. A 1999 USA TODAY analysis of crash data and estimates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that, in the years since CAFE standards were mandated under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, about 46,000 people have died in crashes that they would have survived if they had been traveling in bigger, heavier cars. 5 This translates into 7,700 deaths for every mile per gallon gained by the standards. 6

"Death by the Gallon" reprint from USA Today at http://www.suvoa.org/assets/PDFs/DeathByTheGallon.pdf

[RightWhale]

Congress could have mandated flex fuel on all cars and light trucks that aren’t diesel and done a lot more to stabilize oil product prices.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

So much for “compassionate conservatism”....

[Blue Turtle]

I don’t understand anything anymore...is there no one out there who can lead us?

[Aristotelian]

Here’s Heritage’s sensible conclusion to its 2001 report:

The CAFE standards should not be increased. They should be repealed and replaced with free market strategies. Consumers respond to market signals. As past experience shows, competition can lead to a market that makes gas guzzlers less attractive than safer and more fuel-efficient vehicles. That is the right way to foster energy conservation.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/EnergyandEnvironment/BG1458.cfm

[vikingd00d]

>>Congress could have mandated flex fuel on all cars and light trucks that aren’t diesel and done a lot more to stabilize oil product prices.

What precise article, section and clause in the Constitution grants the federal government the power to regulate such things?

[RightWhale]

We went through all that 30 years ago, last time Congress stepped in it. Flex fuel would get it done free market style.

[Boundless]

> ... requires automakers to increase fuel efficiency
> by 40 percent to an industry average 35 miles per
> gallon by 2020 ...

Doing this in a big car (think) SUV) is dangerous.

Doing it in a smaller car was accomplished years
ago. It’s called “small block turbo”. I bought one
(a gasser) in 1989, and a VW TDI (diesel) in 2002.
Economy most of the time. Performance on demand.

VW TDIs hit these marks routinely, but due to
“symbolism trumps results” liberals, you can’t
buy them in the US now (maybe late 2008, if
CARB doesn’t move the goalposts again).

[spunkets]

"The evidence is ample that fuel economy requirements have killed motorists. Bush has just signed death warrants for thousands more Americans. For example, a Heritage Foundation report says: The evidence is overwhelming that CAFE standards result in more highway deaths."

Ridiculous. The hwy deaths are caused by folks that fail to maintain control of their vehicles. IOWs, they can't drive.

[RightWhale]

Remember the East Texas oil crisis?

[Aristotelian]

United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 3:

“ The Congress shall have power . . . To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;”

[spunkets]

"What precise article, section and clause in the Constitution grants the federal government the power to regulate such things? "

The Commerce Clause.

[mysterio]

This bill is junk.

[wilco200]

This guy is a disaster.

Take a look at the lead story on Yahoo - regular lightbulbs phased out starting in 2012.

Number one, I’ll be stocking up long before they get banned, but there’s an intereting note in the article about recycling - getting people to recycle their new mecury bulbs.

Does the govt. really think people are gonna return these things to stores vs. tossing them in the trash?

Hell No!

These bulbs will go the way of the plastic grocery bags - made to save save the trees, now causing more pollution than sticking with paper.

Dolts!

[Aristotelian]

It’s not ridiculous. It’s simple physics. Make cars lighter and smaller to improve fuel efficiency and the occupants absorb more of the energy released in a crash. Look it up.

[vikingd00d]

>> Remember the East Texas oil crisis?

No. And you still haven’t answered the question.

[Tarpon]

Not one drop of oil, not one nuclear power plant, not one feature for the consumer, not one add for expanding the economy. But lots of things to raise the cost of living for every America. Typical of Democrats and their brand of socialsim.

Since when did Congress get so smart with engineering and efficiency? Like the Soviets of old, notice how Time magazine laments their passing, Congress thinks the best way to do everything is with top down central committee mandates. Even the Chinese communists are figuring out that isn't working.

[mbynack]

Why not just pass a law requiring all cars to be powered by perpetual motion machines? It would solve the energy crisis, clean up the air, stop global warming, eliminate spammers, cure acne, and stop crime. If it doesn’t work you could always blame Dick Cheney.

[RightWhale]

The answer is in the question.

[caisson71]

I’m keeping my 2003, 1500 Silverado indefinately. Sadly, Congressional Dimocraps will be forgotten when the effects of this Bill is felt. It’ll be President Bush’s name on the consequences.