http://www.hybridcars.com/gas-mileage-factors/airconditioning.html
Posted on 11/28/2008 6:17:10 AM PST by reaganaut1
Always eager to shove their agenda into a seemingly unrelated policy discussion, the green movement has joined the debate over bailing out the Big Three automakers.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to tie federal assistance to a requirement that Detroit make more fuel-efficient, eco-friendly cars. “Any car company that gets taxpayer money must demonstrate a plan for transforming every vehicle in its fleet to a hybrid-electric engine with flex-fuel capability, so its entire fleet can also run on next generation cellulosic ethanol,” demands New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Writing in The Washington Post, Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs calls for a “major industry restructuring to position the United States to lead the world in producing cars that get 100 miles or more per gallon.” (Sachs is pinning his hopes on plug-in hybrid vehicles, “fuel-cell cars,” and the much-ballyhooed—but not yet seen or priced—Chevy Volt.)
In other words, at a time when the top Detroit automakers are desperate for financial aid, the federal government should force them to sell more expensive cars that are less profitable. Make sense to you? Me neither.
It’s hard to see how greening Detroit will help car companies, car drivers, or American taxpayers. Greener vehicles are more expensive to make and bring in less profit than other cars. They cost more to finance, more to repair, and more to insure. Their sales depend heavily on tax incentives—which means that selling more of them will require more taxpayer dollars. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) estimates that plug-in hybrid vehicles cost $3,000 to $7,000 more than regular hybrids, even though the performance differences between the two models are slight, and the really fuel-efficient hybrids cost $12,000 to $18,000 more than the conventional brand.
(Excerpt) Read more at american.com ...
I've got a Buick Century. It was $10,500 with 30,000 miles on it.
All the hybrids are out of my price range....forever.
Might as well close up now. Nobody will buy lameass enviro cars for ridiculous prices.
Bail them out? Yup, unless you want to lose the US-based auto industry and surrender that space to foreigners.
Give ‘em heaps of money? Yup, or better still lend it to them at commercial rates. Maybe tax relief. Maybe debt guarantees. Maybe raise tariffs on foreign vehicles. But make sure nothing goes to the shareholders by way of dividend until Uncle Sam gets his money back.
Make ‘em waste money on dodgy and unproven R&D? That sounds like a recipe for disaster. Baby steps first.
The whole reason not to be beholden to the government, or the mafia, you do what they say, or else.
Wanna face this economic future? Just another ponzi scheme to the unsuspecting public. Here’s the lowdown on the ‘Green Bubble’. CDO’s! Sound familiar?
http://www.aninconvenientblog.org/2008/11/13/green-finance-is-changing-wall-street/
Here are three of the most important:
Carbon credits. Perhaps the most important component of green finance is carbon credits.
Here’s how they work: governments place limits on how much pollution major companies can emit and issue (or preferably auction) allowances to those companies.
Companies that exceed their allowances must purchase carbon credits from companies with excess allowances or from companies that have generated credits by planting trees or selling solar lanterns.
Carbon credits offer a fool-proof way to place an artificial value on carbon and as even non-economists know, artificial markets are the most important wealth generators we have today.
Carbonized debt obligations (CDOs). If we’re going to find enough money to save our planet, we need to provide sophisticated investors with a means to invest their green in green more efficiently.
As evidenced by the success of mortgage-backed securities, packaging assets into “portfolios” is an ideal method for creating significant demand for assets that are otherwise individually worthless.
Carbonized debt obligations are portfolios of green assets. These assets can include bonds issued for green infrastructure projects, business loans issued to cleantech companies and carbon credits.
With the ability to invest large amounts of money into eco-friendly derivative instruments without having to worry about the individual components of those instruments, investors will flock to green investing.
Carbon default swaps (CDS). What happens if our efforts to save the planet fail? If we’re only generating 98.1% of our electricity from renewable energy by 2018, we’re almost certainly doomed as a civilization.
That’s where carbon default swaps come in. Think of them as insurance policies for ecological collapse.
Buyers of carbon default swaps pay sellers of carbon default swaps regular premiums. In exchange, if the planet defaults on us, the sellers of those swaps will make payouts to the buyers. These payouts will be made the day after tomorrow.
Carbon default swaps will be especially useful for investors in green technologies who want to hedge against the possibility that all of the money they’ve invested will go to waste if environmental catastrophe strikes.
The Good News
Fortunately, Wall Street doesn’t need any government encouragement to create such instruments; it’s already our ally.
Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs purchased a majority of the carbon credits portfolio owned by E+Co. This follows its investment in two other firms involved in the business of carbon credits, APX and BlueSource.
With a little help from the climate crisis, Wall Street is getting back to the philosophy popularized by insurance magnate Gordon Geico in the movie Wall Street: “Doing well is doing good.”
This good news is that this is just the beginning. As Wall Street shifts its focus from the credit crisis to the carbon crisis, we will see the growth of a more sustainable financial system. That’s green you can take to the bank.
The VW Jetta diesel is the “Green Car Journal’s- Car of the Year 2009”. Last year’s winner was the Tahoe Hybrid. The “Green Car Journal” gets it, i.e. the need for a progressive mix of capabilities, but Congress doesn’t have a clue.
http://www.greencar.com/features/2009-vw-jetta-clean-diesel-wins
This makes perfect sense from the liberal elitist viewpoint. Making cars unaffordable gets the proles on buses and trains and relieves traffic congestsion so limousine liberals can get where they are going faster.
They are also counting on the proven stupidity of voters to accept the argument that they must take over the economy to save the economy, after they wreck it of course.
Finally, engineers should not be designing cars, it should be politicians and columnists.
A columnist and professor have determined, along with Democrat politicians, that ethanol is the future.
Just like synfuels, I guess.
I recall years ago when the Renault Dolphine was available for a brief time in the US. As a car, one thing that it demonstrated was that a vehicle suitable for Europe was not suitable for the US. In the United States we get in a car and will drive 600 to 1000 miles in a day (and arrive at our destination slightly tired). That same trip would take you across Europe. The Europeans must drive much less that we do. The United States need large cars, which will run 100,000 miles with out blinking an eye, and deliver the driver, passenger, and cargo to their destination in relative comfort and safety.
A smaller car, unless exceptionally well designed, will not do this.
There is the other question concerning safety. Although, I have always liked the Honda Civic, I lived in terror of having an accident with an 18 wheeler traveling 70 + mph on an interstate highway. The little car always looses. Take a trip down Route 95 from PA to FL sometime. You want to be in a large, safe car in case something happens.
The environmental anarchists appear to have the wheel at the present time, so only the Lord knows what will be jammed down our throat in the coming years as the Earth cools.
Maybe they should just stay home and drink it...
Assuming there are busses and trains to get on.
But forcing people to move into the already festering urban areas makes the sheep easier to keep track of.
Well the more things “change” the more they stay the same. Anybody who buys the Republican-Democrat good cop bad cop routine is a fool.
When you go begging money from the government you shouldn’t be surprised when the government includes unreasonable demands. If the Big Three don’t want to comply then they should figure out how to stay in business with their own money.
You lay down with dogs, you’re gonna get fleas. I don’t like these particlualr strings, but I think there damn well should be strings of some sort if my money is involved. I dearly wish we had some say in what Lord Paulson is doing the our money, that’s for sure. He’s gonna piss that money away and come back for more, just wait.
Exactly. Also, when you are older it is painful to ride in a car you can't get in and out of and is overall uncomfortable as well as unsafe. But, those who support abortion and euthanasia could care less if people die on the road - more population control on the way. If Nancy, et al want green cars they should be willing to buy and drive the death traps. What! and give up the SUVs and limos. I don't think so. Pseudo intellectuals/elitests at work again.
http://www.hybridcars.com/gas-mileage-factors/airconditioning.html
Your Vegetables Need CO2
Say NO to CO2, your Plants Die.
Starve A Vegetarian, Cut Co2.
We don’t work for the government bcause we choose not to.
Government don’t work for us because they screw up everything with screwed up fixes.
We are being herded like stupid sheeple.
I don’t agree with goverment dictating what businesses manufacture, BUT, if you’re asking for a taxpayer bailout is should and it WILL come with rules. (Whether or not the rules make sense is another matter).
No bailout, no rules. Your choice Detroit.
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