Viewpoints
Approach to energy independence
is just dumb
By Mark Neckameyer
June 15, 2007
Friday PM
Letter to the Editor
Congress' new approach to Energy
independence is just dumb. Today's big supposed gas saver is
mandating car companies increase fleet mileage by close to 50%
by 2020. How are they going to do that? If Detroit or anyone
else could make more efficient cars, they surely would because
consumer demand is there for more efficient cars. Consumers
would love to save money by getting better mileage and the auto
maker that gets there first will generate great sales and profits.
We call that CAPITALISM.
Diane Fienstein, our wonderfully Liberal California Senator,
praised the way the Chinese mandate fuel efficiency. Is Ms.
Fienstein recommending Chinese Communist style government meddling
in free enterprise generally or just with the auto industry?
How about the way the Chinese Communists mandate family size?
Good Idea Senator Feinstein? Why not debate opening the North
Slope or the Gulf Of Mexico or the California coast for more
oil exploration? How about cranking up nuclear energy like they
do in Europe or simplifying gasoline formulation rules? We need
more oil and more efficient gasoline manufacturing, not more
dumb quotas and laws!
Anybody notice higher grocery bills lately? Congress is busy
mandating more ethanol in our fuel. This ethanol is grown on
farmland that used to grow wheat for bread and feed for cattle.
The 7% our grocery bills have gone up this Spring constitute
a hidden gas tax. Mid-West congressmen from farm states are
happy. I am not! Besides, notice how Congress passes these
laws to take effect fifteen or twenty years from now when they
will likely all be retired or hopefully defeated! They get to
claim that they accomplished something yet they ... The way my
teenage grandson would say it, they don't do squat!
Mark Neckameyer
Irvine, CA
Received June 13, 2007 - Published June 15, 2007
About: "I am currently
a 90% California Resident who vacations and cruises to the Alaska
Coast every year to vacation and fish with plans to make it 50%
Alaska residency next year when my wife and I retire. I can't
wait!"
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