What is the fixation on parking lot dreadnaughts? If someone can afford it let them drive what they want.

Do you really think if every car in America was replaced with a hybrid getting 35 to 65 MPG that the oil companies would lower prices? Maybe, to a degree, but these oil companies survive due to the thirst for gas. Want to use 1/3 the gasoline nationwide? Watch the oil companies up the price with reformulated gasoline specific for hybrids.

For myself I don't care what others drive. I have no compulsion to punish them for being 'wasteful' or whatever. They get punished enough at the pump.

New Orleans has been there since the 1700's. I don't think when the area was settled that they gave storms much thought! The Netherlands has been reclaiming land for generations. Safe, no but it's done.Kevin

2004 silverblue 5 sp.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...s/12513654.htm

http://www.redstate.org/story/2005/8/31/04148/2070

What this means is that New Orleans and the Feds have had many years to bring the levee system up to Cat 4 protection levels and have failed. And they failed to maintain the levees properly for the cat 3 storm, being that the cost is about $45 million a year. No use dogging them TOO bad about it, but they DID have chances to improve the levees and did not make it happen.

"Redstate.org? Oh now thats a unbiased source!Kevin

2004 silverblue 5 sp.

[quote=ggoede1]What is the fixation on parking lot dreadnaughts? If someone can afford it let them drive what they want.

QUOTE]

Of course, my big beef with the Highway Yachts is how the average citizen DRIVES them. The trouble is that the owners of the Dreadnaughts drive with a lead foot, which means they make a lot of "panic" stops. They also tend to drive 75+ in rain/snow/sleet because they believe 4WD makes them invincible.

As much as I'd LOVE to blame SUV owners for the high gas prices, their high consumption is only a small part of the cause. The REAL cause is mega-corporations like WalMart import mass quantities of cheap plastic crap from China, and so the Chinese sweatshops have to gear up production, which in turn consumes fuel, which in turn drives up demand, which of course raises fuel prices.

So what you're saying is that our oil consumption has nothing to do with our own lack of responsibility, but it's actually the fault of Wal-Mart and China? I don't think that's a very accurate conclusion to reach to be entirely honest. I think the US needs to persue more economical transportation alternatives as well as alternative fuels. If we can become self-sufficient by producing enough of our own domestic fuels to not have to import any, then we no longer have to care how much oil China, India, or anyone else consumes because we would no longer be competing with them for a finite natural resource. We need to stop blaming others and be responsible ourselves.

AshenGrey,

As a useful rule of thumb, the world's fossil fuel economy is a dichotomy:
Oil for transport;
Coal and Natural Gas for manufacturing, with coal a much larger fraction. China's rapidly growing oil consumption is for the most part due to personal car ownership, not the manufacturing ramp up.

If the US fleet MPG average was 40 MPG, domestic supply would be self-sufficient. America has no one to blame except itself.

R2-E2, 2G Prius.
Highway/City/Husband/Wife MPG: 56.5, as of 12/2005, 26K miles

Jac Nasser, Ford President: "We are planning to launch a hybrid version of
this car [P2000] within this year [1998]. We will also make FCEV available in
2004."

China is actually big on hydroelectric too. Although they're a little reckless in implementation, as far as ruining perfectly good homelands to do so, their two-decade long Three Gorges Dam project is nearing completion and said to be capable of 19.2 gigawatts of electricity when complete. For comparison, the average nuclear ractor is 1 or 1.5gw typically, with a multi-reactor plant being in the low to mid single-digit GW. At any rate, China loves thier hydroelectric plants. Coal, oil, and all sorts of other fossil fuels dry up, but rivers will run so long as rain falls from the sky.

I never said SUVs *weren't* part of the problem; I merely said they weren't the *sole source* of the problem.

The American way of thinking just needs to be adjusted somehow. The average American wants a huge land-yacht that goes from 0-60 in 5.4 seconds. They also want their merchandise *super cheap* even though it is manufactured in 3rd world hellholes that hate America.

Here is your earlier post AshenGrey, for your edification.

R2-E2, 2G Prius.
Highway/City/Husband/Wife MPG: 56.5, as of 12/2005, 26K miles

Jac Nasser, Ford President: "We are planning to launch a hybrid version of
this car [P2000] within this year [1998]. We will also make FCEV available in
2004."