The Required Amount at the Prescribed Rate (Handcrafted From the Finest Corinthian Leather)
Scott Pruitt Wants to Bring Back Wilding
Trump's egregiously biased EPA appointee Scott Pruitt is determined to roll back as many regulations as possible-- and while some regulations certainly inhibit business, at times regulation is a good thing-- regulations can incentivize behavior that will help the country and the economy as a whole, and regulations can limit externalities that are paid for by society at large; the real cost of leaded gasoline was probably an unprecedented crime wave that culminated in the early '90's, when the young brains affected by lead-- a potent neurotoxin-- came of age . . . Reagan and his version of the EPA attempted to relax or even eliminate the lead phase-out, but apparently public outcry and Doonesbury came to the rescue . . . anyway, that's a lot to digest-- it's far more fun to read some Trump tweets and wonder why the President hates Amazon and loves Sinclair news-- but it's all happening again, Pruitt wants to roll back lead paint regulations-- why?-- and he wants to lower mileage standards for cars, because climate change is a hoax and the United States loves Saudi Arabia-- despite the terrorists and the religious rule and the civil rights abuses, they are compliant, sell us oil, and buy our weapons-- so we might as well make giants cars that guzzle up their gasoline . . . and this is an issue where you can make a difference as an individual: drive less, buy a smaller car, and keep an eye out on what's going on in your area, it seems Pruitt and his staff are doing a shoddy job and a lot of his anti-regulatory attempts are getting mired in court . . . anyway, beware of externalities, because with Trump and Pruitt in charge, the externalities are coming for you (and your children and your grandchildren).
My cars get 34 MPG on the highway, how about your Sienna and Outback? Snarks aside I agree 100% that CAFE should be raised not lowered. We are awash in a sea of cars with 300+ horsepower engines that get decent fuel economy. This was almost unthinkable 10-15 years ago. We should be trying to tweak engines towards economy not power, if we tried I think 50 MPG could be quite doable. But everyone wants to drive giant 7 passenger SUVs and minivans just in case they need to move a refrigerator or carry six other people so they need bigger engines to reasonably merge a 5000 pound car from rest into highway traffic.
ReplyDeletethe sienna isn't great but it's the soccer van. outback died and we have a CRV which gets great mileage. we live really close to both our places of work, so i'm always hoping for a massive gas tax to punish the people with long commutes, but i know that could be regressive tax on poorer people-- i think mainly change needs to be systematic, we're incredibly reliant on cars in the US. maybe my next car will be electric?
ReplyDeleteBut where will the electricity come from? Coal?
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's fair to punish people who commute. What if you didn't have tenure and lost your job and had to take one 60 miles away? Does driving 120 miles a day make you a bad person? Would you relocate and make your kids change schools?
Pruitt needs a blanket party
ReplyDeleteScale party
ReplyDeletedriving 120 miles does make you a bad person-- absolutely. so do a lot of other things: eating meat, putting chemicals on your lawn, human trafficking, etc. it's certainly a matter of degree but i would relocate my kids-- so i could spend more time with them, be less sedentary and less likely to die of a heart attack, and because relocating is probably the kind of thing that would make them more resilient. people get way too hung up on what their kids want (and they spend a shitload of time and gasoline driving them to various places). i'm guilty of this stuff too but i try to limit it.
ReplyDeleteand with the rising rate of obesity, america could probably use a scale party.