Quote:
Originally Posted by aceventura3
Do CAFE standards actually work? Are CAFE standards the best way to improve average fuel economy?
I suspect the answer to both questions is no.
First at any given gas price better average gas mileage encourages people to drive more relative to alternatives to driving. Benefit negated.
Third, CAFE standards increase the price of new vehicles and this encourages people to hold on to older less fuel efficient vehicles longer.
Forth, CAFE standards gave car companies incentives to consolidate to achieve the goals. In addition, since trucks are excluded and some SUV's, there was an material increase in the sales of vehicles in this category. Corporate profit margins benefited, not the consumer.
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1. You can only drive so much. If you are going to the beach, you aren't going to drive into the water. Now, you might be able to make two trips to the beach, but that will help their economy and improve your life. (*replace beach with any other destination a few hours away)
3. My car gets 40.04 mpg on the highway, where is the one place I still drive it a few times a year. But, if I had an older low mpg vehicle, there would be fuel savings if I was able to double or triple the mpg when buying a new car. They might drive it more, but again, it will improve their life by going more places and doing more things.
4. Just because auto and oil lobbyists worked their magic and made it a watered down bill where SUVs weren't included, doesn't mean it's a bad bill. It means what the lobbyists did was bad.
Anyways, I saw that market oil prices fell 10% today... Hmmm, did 10% of drivers stay home today? Did 10% of cars, airplanes, and factories shut down? They claim that speculators might count for 5% of the price...I'm thinking it is closer to 75%. In 2008 it went from $145 to $35, that isn't supply and demand anymore. However, Obama is in a tough spot. He doesn't really want oil to plummet like that. All of these alternative energy projects will go under, yet he wants to hurt the oil companies and keep the economy on track.