From the AP:
“OBAMA: “We have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas.”
THE FACTS: Not so fast.
That’s expected to happen in 12 more years.
Under a deal the Obama administration reached with automakers in 2011, vehicles will have a corporate average fuel economy of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, twice the 27 miles per gallon, on average, that cars and trucks get today. Automobile manufacturers won’t start making changes to achieve the new fuel economy standards until model year 2017. Not all cars will double their gas mileage, since the standard is based on an average of a manufacturers’ fleet.
Surely we already have doubled the mileage of cars in the USA… since 1950 or so. Mr. Obama didn’t say since when.
Is Oil A Renewable Energy?
Eugene Island is an underwater mountain located about 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1973 oil was struck, and the field began production at 15,000 barrels a day, then gradually fell off, as is normal, to 4,000 barrels a day in 1989, Then came the surprise; it reversed itself and increased production to 13,000 barrels a day. Probable reserves have been increased to 400 million barrels from 60 million. The field appears to be filling from below and the crude coming up is from a geological age different from the original crude, which leads to the speculation that the world has limitless supplies of petroleum. Similar occurrences have been seen at other Gulf Of Mexico fields, at the Cook Inlet oil field, at oil fields in Uzbekistan, and it is possible this accounts for the longevity of the Saudi Arabian fields where few new finds have been made, yet reserves have doubled while the fields have been exploited mercilessly for 50 years.
http://blogcritics.org/politics/article/is-oil-a-renewable-energy/
I am appalled by people who demand rather arbitrary standards. I wonder if any of them understand thermodynamics. The high concentration of energy in fossil fuels comes from billions of years of storage. The energy available from the conversion of visible light from the sun to black body infrared radiations is diffuse and is and always will be costly to harness. Similarly there is a lower limit to the amount of work need to move our one ton shell over the roads. The efficiency of the modern automobile is miraculous, but not limitless.
1. If we develop energy resources, mileage becomes a lot less important.
2. Where is there any brief in the Constitution for the federal government to impose fuel economy standards on anything that individuals buy for our own use?
3. I’m a cheap cuss and I like higher mileage. If I want a SmartFor4, why should the federal government deny me that vehicle because it may be more dangerous in a hypothetical crash? Contrariwise, if Gamecock or Petrossa wants a bigger vehicle, why should any government deny them that choice by restricting mileage?
I like the “we have” versus “we (government and manufacturers) have agreed to in the future”.
And those gasmileages as stated by manufacturers have precious little in common with reality to begin with