Getting mad for all the wrong reasons...

A friend of my posted this link-

I Want My SUV
I love it when people accuse George Bush of things he hasn't even done yet.

"The New York Times reports today that the Bush administration is expected to abandon a proposal that would extend fuel efficiency standards to cover huge SUVs like the Hummer2 and Ford Excursion."

EXPECTED to abandon it? They are up in arms because he MIGHT do something? Come on. You can bet that if he does support this proposal they'll give him no credit for doing so. They'll find some way to turn it around and STILL make him the bad guy.

"The Bush administration's likely abandonment of better fuel standards is particularly frustrating because the majority of the American people are interested in purchasing more efficient vehicles. A poll conducted this spring found that two-thirds of Americans see buying a fuel-efficient car as a patriotic act. And that's not just lefty environmentalists. Three in five conservatives consider buying fuel-efficient vehicles to be patriotic, and 67 percent of NASCAR fans agree."

Great! Problem solved! If no one is BUYING the gas hogs, then the automobile manufacturers will stop making them. This is a market problem, and the market will take care of it. As long as people are willing to buy 7 miles-to-the-gallon vehicles, why SHOULDN'T they be allowed to do so?


"So once again, Bush is putting his ties to business and industry ahead of the public good—say, less pollution, lower gas prices and decreased dependency on oil. But at least the auto industry will be happy."


Can some one please explain to me how higher fuel efficiency equates to lower pollution? Or how a lower demand for gas (through greater fuel efficiency) would somehow LOWER the price of gasoline? Now, I'm all for a lower dependency on oil, especially foreign oil. But then we might actually have to start drilling in THIS country, and we know what some on the Left think of that option. We could certainly lower our need for heating oil, but to do that we'd have to build new nuclear plants.


Rather than getting angry at President Bush for something he hasn't even done yet, I'm more annoyed at those who block every attempt to get us off our dependency on foreign oil.

(this post is a reprint from my previous blog, comments from there are below the cut)

COMMENTS
1)This one ingrigued me! What do you mean by blocking attempts to get foreign oil?

Maybe you'd want to do a new post--I mean, with the gas prices and everything. I get worried when I see them keep on rising, and I hear about the conflicts in the Middle East and how oil keeps getting mentioned...but it does seem that the scientists are finding different ways to run vehicles. Electric vehicles, for one thing, or vegetable oil rather than petrol (right term?).

On the other hand, it's definitely a serious communication mistake to be upset for someone for something you think the person MIGHT do! I support our president too...he's not perfect, but you already know how cynicism can upset me. And one of the things about trying to predict other people is that you can't. You can make educated guesses, and sometimes you're even right, but that doesn't give you a good reason to criticize...

Alicia

2)This one ingrigued me! What do you mean by blocking attempts to get foreign oil?
What I said was that the same people who are criticizing the President for what he MIGHT do are the same ones who protest against us doing any of the things that would lessen our dependency on foreign oil.

Did you know that we haven't built any new oil refineries in this country in YEARS (I think it's actually decades, but I'm not certain on that)? That they have been trying to build one in Yuma AZ for the last 5+ years, and FINALLY have gotten past the major EPA hurdles? At this point they think they may have it up and running by 2015. At this point not only are we importing oil, but we are also importing about 10% of our gasoline!

All because we can't drill for oil in the US without somebody getting up in arms about it, and we can't build new refineries without YEARS of studies on the environmental impact. (Don't get me started on our nuclear facilities, that's a whole other rant!) That's an oversimplification, but you get the idea.

Other forms of fuel is great, and SHOULD continue to be explored. But in the mean time to force us to rely on more foreign oil is just crazy (in my opinion).

Whew, okay, end of rant! ;)

Tags-President Bush