Al Gore's movie opened last night here in NYC, coming to the rest of the US & Canada within the next 6 weeks.

It was good and covered pretty much everything I expected.

What I didn't know--and it sort of blew me away--is that China's fuel economy standards are so much higher than ours that even when California's new standards hit in 11 years, they'll still be lower than China's are today. I didn't realize ours were so far below the rest of the world until I saw the graph. (I wish I could find a copy online.)

The movie is also clearly a case of him testing the waters for a possible 2008 run. I don't think it's a bad idea, but I figured I should warn you.

Anyway, I'm curious to hear what everyone else has to say.

EDIT: Here's a link to the movie's website, in case you want to see when it's coming to your area.

 

It's a very serial issue.

Let's not cheer for China, just yet. They may have great MPG standards, but they're one of the worst polluters on the planet. Their industry dumps wonderful things like sulphur dioxide, benzene, and good old fashioned feces straight into their drinking water. In a 1998 study, seven of the 10 most polluted cities on Earth were in China.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_of_China

 

What are you talking about with this "California's fuel economy standards"? It's illegal for states to regulate fuel economy. In fact California has tried to sue the EPA about this since they wanted to indirectly regulate fuel economy by regulating CO2 production on their own.

 

It doesn't come out near me until the 9th.

 

I think the intent was CARB and emissions standards, for which Cali was gradfathered by the EPA since some of their standards predate the clean air act, IIRC. It does get frustrating that it becomes synonomous with FE standards.

 

I did mis-quote when I said fuel economy. The chart is entitled "Comparison of Fuel Economy and GHG Emissions Standards Around the World". The y-axis is labelled "MPG-Converted to CAFE test cycle". You can see it here, with the explanation continuing over to here. These are scans I did from the book, "An Inconvenient Truth", by Al Gore, now available at bookstores. (And hopefully, that will stave off a lawsuit.)

Honestly, I'm not sure what the chart is really showing, now that I have it sitting in front of me, instead of flashing across a screen. Our CAFE standards have been 27.5 since the 80's right? So why is this showing it below 25?

The graph title implies that emissions standards are taken into account, but how do you combine mpg and ppm? I dunno.

 

Yes, the film does mention their coal industry.

The FE/Emissions graph was presented in the context of an argument about how cleaning things up would cost us sales. The point was that we can't sell our cars in China because they fall so far below their standard, so we're losing sales by not cleaning things up.

 

It's been 27.5 for passenger cars but up until very recently it was still 20 or 20.6mpg or something for anything classified as a light truck. LT included all the "crossovers" such as the Subaru Legacy wagon, PT Cruiser, all minivans, and so on. Since the LT category makes up about 50% of sales now, that drags the overall fleet average down.

The chart is a little misleading though. He's trying to make the case that all these other countries have moral superiority, but it's just not true. As anyone who fights racism will tell you, people are people are people. There's nothing inherently different about people on the basis of nation of origin. What is different however is that the USA has a combination of the cheapest fuel prices and highest after-tax income levels of any nation on that chart. Because we can afford more we spend more. That's just economics in action. Big cars are actually popular in China even, it's just that very few people can afford them.

Oh, one last note: There are many cases of the same exact car being sold in multiple countries. I mean the same EXACT car. They always show as the worst fuel economy in the USA because our EPA test is the hardest. The Civic that's rated at 30/38mpg in the US is identicle to the one sold in Canada, but they rate it as 30/41.5 in Canada. I believe on Japan's 10/15 fuel economy cycle it's rated 34/46 or something. The Euro standards are also typically more lax than USA's as well, although I haven't run the exact numbers. His chart is biased due to the fact there is no world-wide, universal test for fuel economy.

 

Ah. That makes sense. We drive a lot more light trucks than people do elsewhere.


Well, it does say it's "Converted to CAFE test cycle", which would suggest that they took these things into account, but even so, with differing pollution control systems and added weight for our more-stringent safety systems, you're right that ratings aren't going to be consistent. Even so, I don't think that there's enough of a variation to account for us being so far down on the list.

 

Ok, so other than all the energy conservation tips on the website that everyone will promptly ignore after reading them, what does the book/movie say the solution is? Given the fact Gore is a politician, his solution is more government. So what exact increases in taxes and elimination of personal freedom does he claim will be most effective?