An article I read recently blames our federal government for the high price of oil (and thus gasoline). The argument does like this—and it's an indirect chain of causation.
The so-called CAFE—Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards—have not been raised by the government in 20 years. This has enabled Americans to buy large and thirsty SUVs.
So maybe we should blame the owners of SUVs—who are likely to complain the loudest about gas prices. They're certainly not aware that they have themselves to blame.
Readers of this blog know that I hate SUVs. I used to think that owning and driving them was a macho thing. But it's incontrovertible that an awful lot of women drive them—especially great big ones, with only themselves in them (so don't tell me that people buy them for the capacity). I know that they often say that they like the high driving position and the good view of the road that that provides. I think also they own them because they perceive them to be safer.
Well, it is true that, in a crash between a large and small vehicle, the driver of the larger one will fare better. So the SUV driver looks out for his/her own safety and does not care that, in a crash, he or she may inflict fatal damage to the other car. So it's selfish. But hey, let's acknowledge that we're not all Mother Teresa. And the the SUV owner/driver would say, Well, let that other guy drive a big vehicle instead of the small car that he's got. Thus a kind of vehicular arms race.
Copyright © 2010 by Richard Stein
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As I understand it, oil prices are going up because China is buying more of the world supply, and we continue to depend on foreign oil because we've curtailed drilling.
ReplyDeleteOther countries have created demand for small cars by imposing taxes on gasoline. We missed an opportunity to do that last year when gas prices went down dramatically.
The CAFE standards are a backwards approach to the problem: They force auto makers to build small cars that they can't sell because we've kept gasoline cheap.
Personally, I find SUVs useful. I can always find a parking place in the shade in sunny Albuquerque by parking my Subaru next to a behemoth SUV.
You said above "an awful lot of women drive them-especially great big ones" Are you talking great big suv's or big women? Both can be all too visible on our roads you know.
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