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May 20, 2009

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Of course, the car companies can make a fleeet of cars that get that kind of mileage. The fleet, all of it, would look like a fleet of Geo Metros. That'll stir the souls of car buyers everywhere, and send them all rushing to the dealerships to return GM to profitability.

Jack Lessenberry has made, I think, one small error that is worth noting. He wrote, "For years, California has had far tougher fuel standards than the rest of America." I think that is mostly untrue. What California has had are different "emissions" standards, not "tougher fuel standards."

And they are two VERY different things. Changing a car's emission system doesn't mean it will get better mileage, or that drivers will drive less. Nor is it true that changing a car's architecture, so that it gets better mileage, means that the car will ultimately consume less gasoline. Indeed, a high-mileage car won't consume less gasoline if its owner decides to drive more, since mileage is so much less of a concern. And, in all of this, nothing is being said about "carbon" [carbon dioxide] being produced into the atmosphere.

Obama hasn't directly addressed any of those issues with this punitive and draconian order he is shoving down the throats of Americans. He is telling the car companies to make much smaller, lighter cars, and he is telling Americans what it is that they have to buy.

How many blog entries and print columns by Jack Lessenberry have we read, wherein he was castigating politicians for not having the guts to raise the taxes he thinks are neccessary, and to make plain the hard decisions the public needs to understand? I don't think I could count them all.

But here we we are talking about reducing gasoline consumption. And we have the perfect embodiment of Obama and the Democrats having the precise tool, the example of the Europeans and Asians, and the votes to make it happen, and yet ducking the issue. That tool is a federal gasoline tax. A federal gas tax is the one clear method to reduce gasoline consumption. CAFE standards have been proven, over several decades, to have no impact on gasoline usage. Higher mileage cars? People drive more. Higher gasoline prices? People drive less. But Obama and the Democrats don't have the guts, or the integrity, to enact a federal gas tax. They are probably too smart, knowing that they will get slaughtered and hung out to dry in the next election if they did so.

Any politician who talks about a "global climate crisis" ought to be compelled to vote for a higher gasoline taxes. If you don't vote for higher gas taxes, you have to shut up. We'd then see how much of a crisis we really have.

Mass Transit....Repeat that about 5 goggles...

Convert Michian Auto Sector to National Mass Transit Manufacturing State

Mass Transit ....Repeat that 5 googles....

Maybe we should keep this in mind when California comes to us looking for water.

Better cars = more sprawl. All the savings will be consumed by growth. This is NOT progress. It is not even "change".

Thanks to Greg Thrasher, and his "Alternative Think Tank," which consists soleley of a weblog as far as I know, we now know the answer to all of Michigan's (and the domestic auto industry's) problems:
Mass transit.

Very soon, I'm sure, Thrasher's Alternative Think Tank will have mass transit solutions to these needs:

~ The family of four in Clinton Township, that wishes to go to their cottage on Mullet Lake, and are bringing their boat on a trailer.

~ The two guys, one from Trenton and one from Ypsilanti, who want to leave after their factory shift on a Friday night to go to Houghton Lake for a weekend, bringing their two snowmobiles, and be back at home Sunday night.

~ The mom in Troy whose three kids each have a hockey game this week; one is in Novi, another is in Ann Arbor, and another is in Essex, Ontario.

~ The self-employed house painter and handyman from Detroit, who currently drives an Econoline van with 122,000 miles on it and who makes $35,000 hard-earned dollars a year. He carries a truckload of paint and equipment, and works on homes in St. Clair Shores, Oak Park, Farmington, Grosse Isle and everywhere in between.

Won't mass transit work great for all of those people?
Oh, yeah.
And won't they all just love driving a new, miniature, 39-mpg Obamobile?
Oh, yeah.

Anonymous,

As usual your posts add nothing of value to the dialouge..My theme regarding MASS TRANSIT is a macro approach that changes the road for millions not just a few people ..

Of course I understand underdeveloped thinkers like you lack the vision to have macro ideas and bold themes...Myopic thinkers like you just want to drive around in Econoline vans picking up dirty diapers from the butts of stinky kids..

Then again I understand what drives intellectual cowards who post under 'anonymous' who are envious of people like Obama and progressive people like me ..

BTW my alternative think tank( amazing how people still operate out of old paradigms rejecting new progressive vehicles and visionary constructs like my 'alternative think tank'..of course these same brick and typewriter type thinkers still think cars and the Big 3 matter anymore in the global marketplace...

Everyday I am reminded why our state has become a backward 3rd world venue...posters like Anonymous reveal why ..so sad..so sad..

The Trasher Think Tank is merely a figment of Trasher's mind. No white papers(better make that a black papers), policy papers, etc. Just a jabbering racist bro with a mouth and no intellect. Trasher is just blast of no substance hot air. He weighs in on all topics but he has no expertise, insight or creativity. A flakey,mouthy chump with no accretive value.

Trasher????? Who is dat man, thing, element, mineral??lol,lol,lol

Trasher is no THRASHER ....lol,lol,lol

A gas tax could still materialize if gas prices don't rise above $3.50 anyway or when the economy improves. It just depends if enough people will accept something like this to help pay for new infrastructure, roads, mass transit, and alternative energy R&D and subsidies. It could be argued that, in the long run, a gas tax really wouldn't be all that bad or cost all that much, because you could get a pretty good return on that investment and the money would stay here. Of coarse, it could still be a pretty hard sell, because in the short term it would increase costs. I think if Obama manages to keep enough political capital and/or get re-elected, he could well propose a gas tax in a few years and it might even pass without a whole lot of fuss.

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