Back in the 1970s our august Solons thought it was time to issue a ukase to the auto companies and tell them what gas mileage their cars should get.
The result was that station wagons disappeared and people gravitated to minivans, SUVs, and light trucks, because they had a less stringent gas mileage requirement.
Actually, the minivans, SUVs, and light trucks were and are bigger and heavier than the evil gas-guzzling station wagons they replaced.
Now the Democratic Senate is proposing to raise overall gas mileage to 35 mpg including light trucks. Do these people understand what they are doing? They are proposing to legislate people out of their big minivans, SUVs, and trucks.
Enter the law of unintended consequences. James H. Burnley writes.
Regulatory schemes like CAFE can come with a number of unintended consequences — things like putting smaller, sometimes less-safe vehicles on the road; pricing some vehicles beyond the reach of many Americans; and artificially creating winners and losers in a highly competitive environment like the auto industry.
And the chance is pretty good that another CAFE lurch upwards will do for GM and Ford, which are capitalized at about $10 billion each compared to over $200 billion for Toyota.
Look Democrats, why not just confine your foolishness to handing out subsidies to your alternative energy friends?
Don’t get into things that can’t be solved by ordering people around, holding hearings, and repeating flashy acronyms.
There isn’t a magic hybrid solution here, ether. Accelerating 4,000 lbs of SUV up to 60 mph takes a ton of energy. Braking it to a stop uses up a lot of energy too. Hybrids really only work for liberals driving in yeasty urban neighborhoods, not for average Americans driving on the freeway.
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