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Sunday, August 21, 2005Marcus says it's time to reclassify minivans and light SUVs as passenger cars, not light trucks:I say, one mpg standard for anything smaller than a UPS truck.Yes, but... In Marcus' world, if he follows his own rhetoric, this is one more example of the rich asking the poor to take on their burdens. To wit, the working class needs to be shoved into ever tinier boxes with ever more expensive pollution devices to make up for the extra pollution generated by wealthy SUV owners. You can't find a better picture of how the soccer mom makes the Hispanic nanny pay for her (the soccer mom's) lifestyle. But... I don't think we're being shoved into tiny boxes fast enough. Here in the South Bay, you can't even find a parking spot, because every lot is filled with SUVs taking up one and a half "compact" spaces while leaving inadequate room to park next to them. People tooling along in such as the TurkeySaturn (actually referred to as "Green Bean") are fewer and further between. Bottom line, those of us who don't drive SUVs would all have to be on motor scooters to make up for the explosion of SUVs, if this were about meeting environmental and fuel consumption standards. In truth, the non-SUV driver is being asked to take on a different kind of burden - a political burden. If the folks pushing CAFE standards and environmental regulations believed their rules had an impact, they would: - Celebrate airlines that cancel all but full flights, minimizing fuel consumption and pollution per passenger. Instead, they protest this abuse of consumers. - Call for Arianna Huffington and friends to ditch the private planes. See above. - Ride the bus and walk the extra two or three blocks to work. In spite of the wino asleep on the seat behind them. Not drive to work while complaining about the need for better public transportation. - Stop driving and flying all over the country for meetings about environmental problems. Environmental conferences and Earth Day gatherings should be effected by teleconferencing. It was famously observed by a philosopher (I've forgotten which and can't find the quote) that if people were really Christians, that fact would dominate their lives as nothing else and our understanding of social justice would be radically transformed. Likewise, Cicero may believe in global warming, but the Democratic party doesn't. Nor the environmental left. If they did, they would think less about right, wrong and powerful corporations and more about where emissions could actually be cut, irrespective of who it hurt. I don't believe anyone in Washington, even on K-Street, has sat down and figured out how much smaller and more efficient passenger cars will have to get to maintain current fuel consumption and pollution levels since another vehicle has been reclassified as a light truck. It's all mumbo jumbo. I'm quite certain no one is going to tell soccer moms their kids should play with the neighbor kids. Or that there'd be less pollution if they drove the minivan to Costco once a week and stocked up instead of driving around to farmers' markets and smaller grocers for fresh stuff a couple times a week. Especially since if the small grocery stores and farmers' markets shut down, there'd be a few big trucks a day at the superstore instead of lots of little delivery trucks and vans servicing stores all over the place. So, yes, Marcus, you're right about the minivans, SUVs, etc. But let's get real. Even as cars pollute less and consume less fuel, they're raising standards and preaching as loudly as ever. Maybe it's to make up for the SUVs. Or maybe it's because they're not needed if the government isn't perpetually solving the energy/fuel crisis. If CAFE and environmental standards were about oil dependance and pollution, I'd be sweating the extending of exemptions to "light trucks". Because it would mean the next TurkeySaturn would have to be made from Saran Wrap to balance off all the SUVs out there. But this isn't about saving the environment or reducing oil dependence. It's about pretending to address these matters while making sure that the parties' major constituencies don't share enough of the pain to ask what they're actually doing in Washington. 
posted by gbarto at 12:49 PM |
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