I agree that this bill is hardly the ultimate solution, but in this problem there isn't a simple answer: what we really need and don't have is a responsible hard headed political process that functions to get us through this. Toyota, for example opposes the current bill and believes it will seriously damage their business. If that's true, how much will it damage one of our biggest and most important industries: our auto industry? Leftists and environmentalists shouldn't scoff at this concern: these are industrial workers at risk, the people they should care about. We have made this transportation nightmare with cheap gas, kept cheap by force of arms and CIA coups around the world for decades: we can't turn that on a dime. The incentives proposal has merit: among other things it would permit businesses, workers and farmers who need the large trucks to keep having them.What are the biggest sources of greenhouse gas? Cheap politics won't cut it here, hard slogging governance is what we need and sensible people to get that done.Such people are probably mostly Democrats: but we sure as hell need to figure out who they are and get them in charge.

If people got better mileage, they'd just drive more. Until it is way cheaper to ride the bus, the gas will get used.

We are totally f__kt. Most of our cities are designed for cars, not people.

Move within walking distace of your job. You can't afford gas in the future.

while I think a responsible government would institute draconian mileage standards (in the electric car category...we need to ween ourselves off of ICE engines for individual travel altogether)... that ain't gonna happen.

So, we ought to just forget CAFE standards and tax the hell out of all fossil fuels. I mean, make it so gasoline is 12 bucks a gallon or more. And use the money to invest in alternative energy solutions for transportation.

We'd use ICE engines where nothing else would do...

all this would merely delay the bad day when we have to face the consequences of Cantarell and Ghawar and other supergiant fields in permanent, possibly rapid, decline.

But delay is not a bad thing.

Listening to congress-critters pat themselves on the back for the current bill is just a bad joke.

www.dieoff.org

www.warsocialism.com

read and learn.

The canard about lowering the cost of driving increasing the amount of driving doesn't hold water. Demand for gasoline is highly inelastic.

I think most people simply don't have more time to spend in their cars, even if driving were free. I certainly don't.

I think the feebate idea is much better than the CAFE standard; I would be quite pleased to drive a Honda Insight while getting thousands of dollars a year in transfer payments from Hummer owners.

Many scientists believe we do not have enough fossil fuels left to burn to set in motion the most dire global warming predictions.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/10/02/global.warming/

That said, 35 MPG doesn't mean a thing. Hopefully, the oil production decline will be a "jagged plateau" rather than a swift drop, and those with the funds available will pour them into research and development for new energy sources.

"Detroit fought the Senate bill, arguing -- as usual -- that it would be too expensive to comply with."

I received my driver's license during the oil embargo in October, 1973, that occasioned the Yom Kippur War. At that time the U.S. got about 30% of its oil from OPEC. Now that amount is around 50%. Meanwhile, Detroit's automakers dithered the decades away keeping CAFE standards, for the most part, low. Now, the Big 3 move like slugs sloshing toward slightly higher CAFE standards for the first time in several decades while brave Americans die in Iraq. Where's is Detroit's patriotism?

And what about us--the consumers who buy autos made by Detroit's Big 3? Speaking strictly for me, when my gas guzzling Taurus is paid for I'm going to buy a high-mileage Japanese hybrid. It's better for people, it's better for the planet, it's better for patriotism. Besides, it's as obvious as a sign for higher prices at the gas pumps that Detroit's Big 3 don't love America.

Our car manufacturers do more than make cars, they provide pensions and health care, which is not their core business. The wonderful automakers they're being compared to do nothing but make cars. It's an unfair comparison.

--in the pocketbook--and maybe we'll start driving more Hybrids. In France, gas is about $7 a gallon, more than double what it is in the States. Here people drive small cars, mostly diesel and they don't drive a lot. When I was living in the States, I was enraged every time I saw a lone driver in their SUV going to the supermarket. It's just so selfish. Now it's so strange for me to watch American TV shows with their enormous, four-door trucks and useless (to them) 4 x 4's and then to watch European shows where everyone is driving a tiny Fiat or Peugot. Even the police drive small cars!

I hope America gets over its self-indulgence and ridiculous head-in-the-sand attitude. We are doing irreparable damage to our environment, our roads, and our world image. And for what? So Mom can load 4 bags of groceries in the back of her trendy over-sized blood for oil machine? I can't wait for Michael Moore to do a movie on this one! Oh, that's right, he's from Detroit.

I'm mystified why Toyota Priuses aren't selling faster in the US. I have to do a lot of driving for my work. I bought a 2004 Prius three years ago, have over 108,000 miles on it, and have averaged better than 50 mpg on it. I received my $1500 extended warranty fee back because I hit 100,000 miles without needing ANY work on the car other than routine maintenance. It's comfortable, and roomy enough that when one side of the backseat is down, I can fit a fully inflated air mattress and sleeping bag in it. It has great pickup when entering a busy expressway, is silent when I stop--really, it's the most pleasant and easiest car I've ever had.