Posted on 05/18/2007 5:07:34 AM PDT by NY.SS-Bar9
Are you dying to get a car with better gas mileage? You may soon be running that risk, all in the name of “energy security.”
This week President Bush announced his plan to reduce U.S. gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next 10 years. Five percent of this reduction — 8.5 billion gallons per year — is to come from increased gas mileage requirements for new cars and light trucks, known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards.
Increasing CAFE standards sounds like a no-brainer. Just mandate new standards and, somehow, auto company wizards will find a way to meet them with new technology, right?
The unfortunate reality, however, is that the only practical way automakers can meet higher CAFE standards at present is by the rather low-tech method of reducing the weight of automobiles.
And lighter cars are deadlier cars.
The National Academy of Sciences concluded in 2001 that existing CAFE standards increased traffic deaths by 1,300 to 2,600 per year. A Harvard University/Brookings Institution study put the figure at between 2,200 and 3,900 deaths per year.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has estimated that since CAFE was implemented, more than 46,000 traffic deaths would have been avoided if people had been driving heavier cars. Many tens of thousands more, of course, have been needlessly injured.
The NHTSA concluded in an October 2003 report that CAFE standards are even deadlier than the agency previously thought.
Every 100-pound reduction in the weight of small cars (those weighing 2,950 pounds or less), for example, increased annual traffic fatalities by as much as 715, according to NHTSA. For larger cars and light trucks, the agency estimated that each 100-pound reduction in weight would increase annual traffic fatalities by as much as 303 and 296, respectively.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
“W” couldn’t reduce 20/40 to its lowest dominator. He is out of touch, out of control and out of his ever loving mind. Please Mr. President, show real concern for our nation and resign.
Whoever becomes the new V.P. will be eternally grateful. It would change the picture for 08.
I don’t know if I’d go that far but he certainly hasn’t been good for the Republican party lately....
I routinely see incredibly light weight autos (F1, CART) run into things at up to 200 MPH without damage to the driver.
Cars can be made light and strong. You just need to work at it.
I think I’ve bought my last vehicles. I’m going to keep my F-150 and my old Lincoln Towncar on the road forever. They’re going to end up looking like something out of “Road Warrior.”
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Anything you can do to a light car to make it better, I can do to a heavier car to make it even better yet. You can't ignore the laws of physics. You run one of those 200 mph cars straight into a barrier (as is required for passenger vehicle safety tests) and tell me how safe it is. I would rather ride a Cadillac De ville into a 35 mph barrier, than an Indi car.
” If we don’t buy Muslim oil, then they won’t have money to spend on terror. “
How does that follow??
*Somebody* (say, India and China and Japan and Europe) is gonna buy that oil, whether we do or not.
There are a lot of reasons to conserve, without dragging that illogic into the discussion.
(And, of course, conservation just isn’t a solution to any of the long-term energy issues facing this country.)
Ask yourself what an F1 car costs, and then ask yourself if you really want to pay for that technology in your daily driver. I have a light car (3132 lb) that is fairly strong, but it was expensive - more than most people want to pay.
Don't forget the Law of Unintended Consequences or the Law of Supply and Demand. By reducing our demand we increase the amount of oil available on the world market. This will drive the price down. Lower prices will mean the Chi-coms will suck up even more oil at the lower prices and continue to build their war machine. Unless we can move on to another alternative completely, the unintended consequences of our conservation, and the result of vast quantities of oil made available on the world market, could spell dire consequences a decade or two from now.
But look at the positive side to this! With more drivers dying, once the wreckage is cleared away, there will be less congestion on the roads, fewer traffic jams wasting gas, and most importantly, fewer drivers using gasoline.
It looks like a “win-win” situation to me!
Mark
It's not just a matter of being strong. One of the things that kills people is rapid acceleration. When a heavy object strikes a light object, the light object experiences much more acceleration. That's an unavoidable fact of Newtonian physics.
Guess how much that costs
That is pure Newtonian physics. It assumes 2 perfectly elastic objects.
The whole secret is in the energy absorbing crush zones and their physics.
A good example of this is the Kevlar Vest and reactive armor that is now being used.
Let’s talk about his stance on illegal immigration. Do you think allowing upward of 35 million illegal aliens ( one estimate of the actually number of illegals in our nation) is going to reduce our energy needs. How about his pimping for ethanol? It is a God send to ADM but an overall energy loser and an inflation driver.
Let’s examine spending running out of control under “W” or the massive expansion of government while he’s been in office. Care to examine the Ted Kennedy, No Child Left Behind, education bill that the President passed off to his buddy Ted.
Remember Arlen Spector? “W” endorsed and campaigned for Spector instead of a conservative Republican. We can’t forget George Tenent, the CIA director that “W” carried over from the Clinton administration.
“W” is a loser for the conservative movement if not its death blow. American is better served if he resigns because he is incompetent and a not so in the closet Rockefeller Republican. In other words he’s a liberal.
I see you learned what little you know about cars from TV:
Have you noticed that no F1 or CART cars carry passengers, that they get around 4 m.p.g., and that they don't meet ANY NHTSA safety standards???
And how would you like to pay as much as an F1 car costs???
Stick to whatever it is you know.
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