Hi all;
Soap Box switch set to 'ON'
I'm going to barge in here and state that something is being overlooked.
The thing that is being overlooked is the greed of the politicians
in Congress.

Case to point:
In 1993, while working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, I found
myself in a 50 mile commute - one way... Being ever the engineer (is that
how that word is spelled?), I decided to get a classic commute car. The
car of choice was a Honda Civic VX (the VX is important) hatchback.
Reasons for buying it were the essence of simplicity.

It had, (the VX model,
that is) at that time, the highest EPA estimated millage of any car on the
market. The figure I was interested in was highway mileage because, at that
time, most of my commuting was done at 55-65 mph. This changed by the time
I sold the car to absolutely awful Los Angeles style stop and go for 50 miles
each way. I digress. Back in those days, there was a lot of chit chat about
the EPA estimates not being accurate, so after buying the car, I dutifully
recorded every fill up with mileage.

I sold the car ten years later with .25M miles
on it.I tallied up on my trustee Excel what I actually saw, for my driving style,
tires, etc. Here's the results: The EPA estimated mpg was 51 highway. The best
recorded mpg I got was 58. The worst mpg was 35. The mean was 45 mpg over ten
years of mostly freeway (bumper to bumper driving). The 58 figure was early
on when you could still travel at 65 mph. So, what's this got to do with
politicians?

Just show me, today, a car that gets the average mpg that mine
got for the highway, which is not a hybrid, can carry 4 comfortably, 5
uncomfortably,  has large cargo and easily exceeds 120mph and could drive
from San Jose, CA to San Diego, CA without a fill up. I don't think it's
out there. I don't think anyone would suggest that the failing car companies
who desperately need high mileage cars to stay in business are not building
them because they're in cahoots with the oil industry? Or am I all wet here?

It's simply a case of environmentalists doing everything they can do to get
greenhouse gases down, ignoring the fact that much more gasoline is being
used to supply these somewhat cleaner, low mileage vehicles. Does anyone not
think that whatever technology breakthrough us techies come up with that the
gov won't come down on the industry with yet cleaner requirements? Not to
mention the need for an excessive increase in fuel tax to "balance" it all
out and, of course, replenish the king's coffers? If you disagree, I invite
you to look at yesterday's news about a two phase  tax on cng fueled vehicles,
the tax so high that their relatively cheap $0.88/gal cost will more than
double. Ah well, all in a days work.
Soap Box switch set to 'OFF'
-- Keith