A goodly chunk of the people reading the USA Today article have no idea what an Edsel is. Regardless, take a guess where this piece goes
Biden’s new electric car goals are an Edsel masquerading as a Tesla.
The United States needs to urgently slash global warming pollution with strictly enforced standards that phase out sales of new gasoline-engine cars and trucks by 2030 and dramatically boost fuel efficiency until then. But the emissions cuts in the auto plan President Biden issued Thursday are too timid – and rely too heavily on automakers’ voluntary commitments to produce electric vehicles. They won’t cut it. (snip)
The plan ballyhoos electric vehicles, touting a hoped-for new-vehicle fleet that could be up to 50% EVs in 2030. But automakers gave Biden no commitment that they would reach even that inadequate target. Voluntary pledges from auto companies make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight look like a legally binding contract. Because automakers have demonstrated they can’t be trusted (See: Volkswagen diesel-gate), compliance with every element of the package must be written in stone. (snip through a lot of complaining about those mean auto makers producing vehicles that people actually want to buy)
Automakers have long had the technology needed to achieve real improvements: electric motors; safe, high-strength lightweight steel and aluminum; continuously variable transmissions, and aerodynamic designs, for example. With them, consumers would save more at the pump than the improvements would cost.
But rather than make full use of the gas- and dollar-saving improvements, carmakers pumped $14 billion yearly into TV and web ads and other marketing to ramp up production of gas-guzzling SUVs and pickups. For years they’ve saddled customers –who often haul little more than a cappuccino from Starbucks – with truck markups of as much as $35,000.
You mean the vehicles that people want to buy? Huh. BTW, the vast majority of 4 cylinder vehicles have CVTs. That 2.0 Turbo meant to replicate a 6 cylinder? It’s a 4 cylinder with a CVT. Better fuel economy, less change of hearing “you need a new transmission.” Better on hills. More consistent power. Most use high strength body materials for the unibodies. No frames. And aerodynamic designs. Are climate cultists Dan Becker and James Gerstenzang been living under rocks for the last 15 years?
To fend off the worst climate catastrophes, Biden has set a goal of near-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Because some vehicles remain on the road at least 20 years, we can’t reach that crucial target unless we phase out sales of new gas-powered cars and light trucks by the end of this decade.
What’s this “we” stuff? What if the majority of us don’t? How about you cultists stop using them?
Biden’s auto standard is an Edsel masquerading as a Tesla. Before it becomes final later this year, he must strengthen it. Global warming is burning forests, roasting the West and worsening storms. Now is not the time to propose clunker rules for today and promise strong ones for tomorrow. The stakes are too high to aim low.
They want Biden to act as a dictator in forcing you, the Free Citizens of the USA, to comply. Surprise?
Apparently, these people think it’s a great idea to put all their eggs in one basket. They want all EV vehicles. Bad Idea because they also want all their eggs in non fossil/non nuclear “renewable” energy. Bad idea because if that is all the electric generation civilization will have available then civilization will collapse.
Or is that the object?
Ever been in an electric blackout? I went 24 days without electricity once. It ain’t pretty. Had it not been for a small gas generator we would have been in real trouble. In fact it made such an impact I purchased and installed the top of the line whole house Generac generator to avoid future repeats. The modern world cannot function without reliable energy 24/7/365 and there is no way we can attain that goal on wind and solar power. Period.
Anyone who is serious about eliminating fossil fuels (which unless they also plan on eliminating plastics, medicines and other products) and does not figure in a major nuclear power program is not serious and should be considered a charlatan.
I went without sparktricity for five days, in January of 2018, when an electric heat pump was the only heating source for our home. My sister went nine days without electricity following an ice storm, and the only heating source for her house was a fireplace.
Were the warmunists to have their way, I wouldn’t be able to retain the propane for the fireplace I subsequently installed, or the water heater, or the range. My sister — now in a different house — wouldn’t be able to install the gas fireplace she wants, and my other sister unable to keep the gas service for her house.
Electricity is the most vulnerable of our utilities, because so much of it uses above ground transmission, and power lines and substations can be knocked out by storms or motor vehicle accidents.
“Well, infrastructure! Put electric service underground!” the warmunists will yell. That would be hugely expensive, and for someone like us, all I can do is point out that we’re far enough out in the country that natural gas lines don’t reach out here; it’s just too expensive to run gas lines so many miles away from town for just a few customers, which is why country people get gas delivered into home propane tanks.
The warmunists are almost all urbanites, who have no real understanding that not all of the country is big cities.
The quoted article said:
Man, we just can’t trust the peons to take the right decisions, so we’re just going to have to take those decisions for them!
One thing is true: a lot of truck buyers haul little more than a cappuccino from Starbucks, but, hey, if that’s how they want to spend their money, why is it any of my business to try to stop them? I may have mocked them in the past — that’s freedom of speech, you know — but I wouldn’t arrogate to myself the authority to direct what they buy.
Or what vaccines they choose to take.
Have you noticed? Today’s left are all about controlling everything you do, for your own good, of course.
The Chinese, of course, will do the same. There’s no comparison between the air quality in the U.S. and China. They’ll just sit back and watch western civilization die. The United States has reduced CO2 emissions more than any other country, yet that isn’t good enough.
We’re guilty of exercising our freedom, and we’ll have to pay for it.
brinster wrote:
Nailed it!
The United States needs to urgently slash global warming pollution with strictly enforced standards that phase out sales of new gasoline-engine cars and trucks by 2030 and dramatically boost fuel efficiency until then.
If you lead with an assertion like that, you need to provide proof, or at least some evidence.
Actually, CVT’s are garbage. Good in snowmobiles, great on paper but, that’s it. They wear out quickly and don’t take temp extremes nearly as well as a conventional trans. I’m in this business 40 years now. They are used because they get good fuel numbers in the lab. Warranty numbers, even for the Jatco unit, stink on ice.
The AGW movement. The BLM movement. The Antifa movement. Is all CHINA DRIVEN. China Funded and China backed.
The stealing of technology from all colleges around the globe is all CHINA DRIVEN.
The infiltration of every nation of consequence is all China driven. Covid-19, SARS, MERS, Bird Flu have all spread from CHINA in just the last 12 years.
YES the object of today’s left is the collapse of SOCIETY and economies of the world, leaving one SOCIETY ready to pick up the pieces.
Meanwhile in the Senate the GOP is beating their meat for Biden and letting him push through a bi-partisan infrastructure bill that will then be transformed into the lefts wish list including NATIONALIZING ELECTIONS and then passed on RECONCILIATION in the senate with K. Harris breaking the tie.
The GOP are selling us down the river every bit as much as is the left. I have zero Idea what they are thinking? The one trillion will become 4.5 trillion. Inflation will skyrocket and elections will become third world because they will be run by the left who already has plans to CLOWARD AND PIVEN THE USA and the rest of the WEST.