I never said you were unpatriotic for using your 13 mpg business van as a personal, family vehicle. Let me try one more time to explain where I'm coming from:
In the early 1970s, during the first so-called "Middle East oil crisis," the federal government urged consumers to practice energy conservation and, at the same time, told automakers to start making cars that get more miles to the gallon of gas.
Americans responded, and so did Detroit. Newspapers published lists every year of how many mpg each car got. The reason these lists were published is that it was important for Detroit to make more fuel-efficient cars.
Over the next three decades, our interest in conservation/improved fuel mileage has waxed and waned ... but mostly waned.
When I look at all the SUVs on the road today, I ask, Why? Why are there so many gas-guzzling Broncos as opposed to comfortable four-door sedans that get perhaps 50% better gas mileage?
What happened to this country's mission to use less gasoline and turn out more fuel-efficient cars and, in the process, become less dependent on Saudi oil?
The answer, as it was explained to me, is that SUVs are actually classified as trucks and therefore exempt from mpg standards for cars.
That, my friend, is a prime example of corporate deceit to the detriment of America. Detroit used a loophole to supply gas hogs to hundreds of thousands of Americans who have the money to buy one and gas one up every week.
This is clearly "economically unpatriotic." |
