Dear Tejek:
The only nitwits are those who bash plans without reading them. You do not know how much energy this nation consumes. You ever look at the consumption figures?
Conservation is just not possible beyond a certain point. If you keep turning your thermostat down every winter more and more to conserve, soon you would have burst pipes, and lose a lot more money. Even super insulated homes have a problem called ventilation, without enough air changes people get sick, and possibly even die. Even with perfect heaters, air exchangers, perfect insulators, energy input is still required. Water must be pumped, wastes flushed, lights on during evening, dishes washed, laundry washed and dried, etc. All this takes energy. To move objects through the air requires some energy. The reasons the typical SUV uses more gas are that first, the large frontal area must be shoved throgh the air, and two, the driveline has more friction due to the transfer case and twin differentials some or both be limited slip. Accesories in cars are using more energy for things like power steering, power brakes, ABS, air conditioners, fans, electronics of all type of tasks, etc. All of this takes energy.
To conserve our way out, you need to reduce energy use by 33% right now, and 66% in the next 20 years. How do you lift 1 metric ton of water per minute 10 meters with only 5 kilowatts? Its impossible to get more work done than energy input. Yet you think that conservation is the only thing required. Sorry, it just doesn't wash. You need to produce more energy. Now you have to to determine what mix of energy is required to satisfy us, thats you, me, and all of the others who live in the US.
The big problem is gasoline, nationwide. Two years ago, when oil was selling for $8 a barrel ($0.20 a gallon), people looked at the costs vs desire in vehicles, and determined that saving $800 a year in gas costs was not worth passing up that SUV with 4 wheel drive, the ability to go anywhere (at least in the ads), safety in a big heavy box, and so on. who cared it got only 15 mpg. Thats only 1000 gallons a year and gas only costs $1000 for that much. They wanted the huge engine with 200 to 300 horsepower instead of one with 120. They went for the 5.7 liter V8 or 7.0 liter V10 engine rather than a 3 or 4 liter V6. They prodominitely go for automatics even though they breakdown more often, require more maintenance, use more energy (automatics chew up about 20 horsepower by themselves) and are more costly than manuals. They pass up that compact car with a 100 hp 4 cyl with manual transmission that gets 30 to 40 mpg, costs about 1/2 to 1/3 that SUV, and it costs only 400 gallons of gas per year or $400. Just look at Scumbria, he has 2 SUVs (model and type unknown). After noticing that 4WD is vastly overrated in winter driving (I had a 4WD pickup that got good gas mileage (I averaged 20 mpg over its lifetime) but, found even with Wisconsin's tough winters, that I really needed 4WD once a year on average as 2WD vehicles can go through conditions you would not believe a 4WD could go through), I went back to 2WD vehicles. I am waiting for hybirds that are large enough for me to fit into (the Honda Insight and Toyota P.. (I forgot its name) are too small for my 6'3" large frame (read fat)).
All of those SUVs, large vans (who needs a van that hauls 15 to 21 people around really?), motor homes (I saw someone who commutes to work in one (what a waste!)), muscle cars, and pig boats (Lincolns, and Caddies), use huge amounts of fuel doing little more work than a compact car 99% of the time. CAFE standards are gotten around by making the large SUVs, vans, and pickups weigh more than 8500 lbs gross rising them above that limit in the law (now you know why they make them BIG). After they rise above that limit, they can consume huge quantities of gas for their owners enjoyment of having the biggest, baddest, <expletives deleted) on the planet (or at least in their mind).
Tell me why, you can't get a small engine in these monsters? Why, even in small cars horsepower goes up for better features? Why you can't get the smaller engine or a manual when you get creature features like AC, PW, PDs, better seats, and CDs? Because of the vast amount of idiots in public buy the biggest motors, can't drive a manual, refuse to buy the small energy efficient cars over the large, big, powerful, and fuel wasting vehicles.
Now you see why the conserve faction seems to always lose. Except, it is in that plan you so criticize. Did you even read it? Or did you swallow the opposition's reading of it? Shame on you for criticizing something you did not read for yourself.
Pete |
