What does "Green" have to do with the automakers and How will all of us be Affected?

Years ago it was not uncommon for a Family sized car to get 12-15 Miles per Gallon of gas. Nowadays because of new technology, consumer demand and rising fuel prices cars on the road typically get upwards of 30 MPG on the highway and some get up near 40. Some new rules have been put in over the last several years requiring car companies to up the MPG on most models. Although allot of those rules were more "suggestions" then true enforceable laws. Now in the Obama administration a new law has just been signed that Forces automakers to up fuel economy by very large amounts, in all cars, including SUVs and large trucks.

This new law has been driven by a not quite new, but highly formidable force in the "Green Movement". First off I will say that Green is definitely good, everyone should Recycle, they should put effort into using less excess, create less trash by not using Styrofoam plates. Unfortunately some people including our leaders and scientists want to take the Green movement MUCH farther. A law was passed the congress under the First George W. Bush administration that allowed scientist to testify under oath in congress and state things as "Fact" when they could not be scientifically proven. This was in essence to allow them to say things like "The temperature of our planet WILL rise by 2 degrees causing mass destruction, and the sea level to rise 20 feet in 10 years if we don’t do something". This is the "Global Warming" that Al Gore was and IS a Huge proponent for, (Which is now called "Climate Change" because despite scientist "Facts" in the 1990's the Earth hasn’t Warmed in the last 30 years).

Over the recent past, allot of Corporations have jumped on the green bandwagon offering everything from eco safe laundry detergent to eco safe house paint. efforts have been taken to require people to use Eco Safe light bulbs, even though in testing of an entire city in Indiana they found that when Eco Bulbs were used, overall the town consumed MORE electricity because it didn’t cost them "as much" to leave the lights on.

"So how does this affect me and the cars that I will buy in the future?"

Well, now with the Government having controlling interest in General Motors and a Minority stake in Chrysler, they have control over a huge portion of vehicle manufacturing in America. What’s for better or worse is they also control the Rules that will govern ALL the automakers. The Obama Administration holds the white house and the Democrats hold the House, Senate and soon to be Supreme Court, they also have a large enough majority that they don’t need a Single Republican vote to pass ANY laws. So when Obama says that GM will build the "New generation of Eco Safe cars Americans Want to buy", is it possible the second half of that statement is False?

68% of Hybrid car owners said they bought the car for... http://www.edmunds.com/advice/hybridcars/articles/109421/article.html

Umm you guessed it, to "Make a Statement".... .... really?? are you kidding me??

hmmm what about the Environment? Oh there it is, I only read the 1st 3/4 of the article, #4 was people wanting to help the environment.

On top of that the Irony behind trying to save on gas as number 2, it generally takes 5-7 years for a Hybrid to bring back its value in gas prices, and those calculations are with gas prices where they were last summer $4.00 a gallon.


So now that we all get to Drive cars that "Make a Statement"... (Although if we’re all driving them there won’t be much of a statement being made)… What other affects will there be?



Well for one, if you tall or of larger stature, you probably won’t be comfortable. In Europe, where FIAT makes cars.. (hmm fiat is with Chrysler now).. Almost every car you see is smaller than a Honda Fit. Second cars will not be as safe. The test results don’t lie, smaller cars just plain score LESS in collision tests, and even with less large cars on the highway, there will always be trucks and trees for people to run into. We will likely see lower speed limits to offset this, so it will take longer to get where we are going. On another note with safety, Goodyear makes a tire that advertised saving you 50 gallons of gas on a set of tires, yet is scores lower than similar tires on grip to the road. So even while you’re driving slower, if that kid down the street runs in front of your car again, and you have these tires, well he’s dead, but YOU saves the environment :D. The last great thing we have to look forward to with the new cars is the price tag. Even by the Obama administration’s own admissions, cars under the new 2012 requirements WILL cost upwards of $3,000 more than they would without the new requirements. If your Camry costs $3,000 more and gets the required 5 more MPG it will only take you 252,000 miles to make up for the extra cost at purchase if gasoline is $3.00 a gallon.