Today’s new CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards are just a hoax. They were originally passed in 1975, nearly 35 years ago. The auto industry has been living with CAFE standards for decades but it hasn’t done shit to improve average mileage. During that time, the auto industry came out with tons of SUVs and Hummers, all in the face of CAFE standards. Today’s new CAFE requires by 2016 (8 years) that mileage be 35.5 mpg. Big Fucking Deal.
It doesn’t matter because these standards can be changed. All it takes is a little lobbying and a little amendment on some unrelated bill and the core of today’s bill can be gutted overnight. It has happened before and it won’t be any surprise if it happens again. This is why America is so utterly fucked up. Special interests and money make all the decisions — it just doesn’t matter what is good for the country. As a result, America is a country that is only good for a very small minority.
Today, hybrids get 50+ mpg. So, what is the big, fucking deal about 35.5 mpg? Why not 50 mpg in 3 months? So what if there are a bunch of models that cannot meet it. So what? They just can’t sell those piece of shit cars and trucks until they meet the new standards. If people need new cars, let them buy the ones that are available.
What is absolutely funny is that it was the auto industries success as eliminating the CAFE standards that caused them to go into bankruptcy. They kept making those gas guzzlers and when gas prices went up people didn’t want them. Just another example of what capitalism doesn’t work and doesn’t do what the market demands. Instead, they get bailed out when they fuck everything up. That is one thing American capitalism is good at — always doing the wrong thing and focusing on money in the very short term and fucking the future.
I understand that it takes time to implement new standards but it doesn’t take 8 fucking years. When you have long time frames things just never happen. Remember how the U.S. was going to convert to the metric system? Lots of time to implement that, but there was also lots of time to eliminate it. It got eliminated to the determent of America.
All of this is a bunch of bullshit because there are always lots of powerful people trying to undermine good ideas to make more money. Well, keep it up because the joke will be on you as America goes down the tubes.
America is doomed.
