As we get ready to celebrate the beginning of the New Year and the National elections in 2008, there is at least one issue which should put a damper on our enthusiasm for the celebration of a new beginning in 2008.
If you have not hard about it, the Congress passed a new CAFE bill and President Bush did as he has so many other times during his seven years in office. He pulled the rug out from the little man! He signed a bill into law that will make automobiles drastically smaller and less safe on the highways to satisfy a bunch of Ecology worshipers whose theory of the Global Warming has not been conclusively been proved. As reported in this blog and many others, there are at least 400 scientist whose expertise is in climate and its relation to man made pollution, who decry the claim that man made pollution has an adverse effect on the Warming of the World.
Never mind scientific testimony. The world has apparently bought into the philosophy and religious fervor of the man who claims to have invented the Internet, Al Gore and his ilk.
The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the revised version of the Energy Independence and Security Act, returned to it from the U.S. Senate this week. After a camera-ready trip to the White House in a Toyota Prius, the bill was signed into law by President Bush. A key provision of the bill is an increase in fuel-economy standards to average 35 mpg by 2020, which is the first time the CAFE average has been raised since the 1970s.
Also included in the bill were mandates for the U.S. fuel supply to include 36 billion gallons of biofuels — including 15 billion gallons of ethanol, with the rest from "non-food" sources — in 2022. A substance that will make the mega-farmers rich and raise the cost of most food products, that has been shown to damage the fuel injectors of cars over time.
The horrors of this bill will be born by those who have to drive on the highways with the uncontrolled behemoth trucks. To make cars more fuel efficient the auto makers will have to make vehicles for passenger travel smaller and lighter. While they do this the trucks get larger, and become more of a threat to the health an safety of the "individual" driver.
It is much easier to take on the individual than the trucking industry or the teamsters!
Recent studies by Harvard University demonstrate the dire consequences of reducing the size of passenger vehicles. Not only will more cars be blown off course when one of the double trailer trucks passes At more than 75 miles an hour. The real crisis will occur when their is a collision with one of these monsters of the highway!
Researchers at Harvard University and the Brookings Institution found that these micro-cars are not as safe as the current U.S. fleet. Their research found that for every 100 pounds shaved off cars to meet CAFÉ standards between 440 and 780 additional people were killed in auto accidents. This means that an additional total of 2,200 to 3,900 lives will be lost per model year. Adrian Lund, of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said, “Fatalities are much higher with small, lightweight vehicles.” Politicians are force-feeding the micro-cars on the American public even if that means these vehicles will be less safe.
A study in Florida concluded with the following facts: According to the 2003 Florida Department of Transportation Factbook, on average 704 traffic accidents occur in Florida each day. In 2002, there were 250,470 traffic accidents which resulted in 229,611 injuries and 3,143 deaths.
A recent visit to a Toyota dealership, the number one car being sold today in the U.S., it was discovered that only one car meets the standard passed by Congress. The Toyota Prius.Where as the smallest car made by Toyota, the Yaris, had a maximum 36 mpg on the highway, and its combined city and highway average was below the required 35 mpg. The Toyota Camry Hybrid also failed the new CAFÉ standards.
Don't think for a minute that the limousine riding Prince's and Princesses of Congress will be found driving one of the new fuel efficient and dangerous to our health cars. They will cruise up to the Embassy party's in their gas guzzling limos. You can bet on that!
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