An agreement among Congressional Democrats has paved the way for an increase in the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) Standards of 40 percent to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. As a person working in the auto industry, I have always been a firm believer in letting the market dictate what kind of vehicles the consumer buys. But I am going to shock everyone by actually supporting this increase. Here are my reasons why:
- The United States needs to decrease its' dependence on foreign oil, and this will save over a million barrels a day.
- A million barrels a day at $96 a barrel equals $3.5 billion a year of our cash that we don't put into the pockets of Hugo Chavez, Armagedonijihad et al.
- There is enough time for our auto companies to work out the technology to accomplish this feat. In fact, with the fuel cell and advanced dual-mode hybrid technologies that General Motors is already putting into production, 40 miles per gallon is not too far away.
My problem is in a couple of other parts of this energy bill.
This bill mandates a seven-fold increase in the production of ethanol for use as a motor fuel. Are they nuts? We currently subsidize ethanol to the tune of $1.45 per gallon. With the new requirement to produce 36 billion gallons of ethanol a year by 2022, subsidies would amount to almost $54 billion of our tax dollars. We are already seeing an increase in the price of corn and meat (corn is a staple in most animal feed). With the increased farm land that would have to be dedicated to corn production, we will also see an increase in just about every farm product.
Another part of this legislation that sticks in my craw is the requirement for non-public electric utilities to produce at least 15 percent of their power from renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. I can understand the desire to slow down our use of coal. Even if you don't believe in global warming, spewing all that crap into the air just can't be good. But unless they consider the atom a renewable energy source, they aren't attempting to use the cleanest energy available.
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