My favorite online news source is "The Lever." Although they seem to be very left leaning (they complain less about Biden than about Trump, for example, but they most certainly complain about Biden, too, when he doesn't do what he said he would do, or what's good for the country), I consider them very strictly accurate in their research and reporting.
I got a post from them today, and it addresses a few issues. One of them is "gas guzzlers:"
Gas Cuts For Gas Guzzlers
It’s time for gas guzzlers to go on a diet. A new proposal from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a division of the Department of Transportation, calls for stricter limits on emissions for passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks. The proposal follows potential new EPA standards to regulate transport, which could halve the emissions and pollutants produced by U.S. automobile manufacturers, and experts say the two efforts combined would transform the industry.
Americans (notoriously) love their cars, and transportation accounts for nearly a third of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, more than any other sector. The NHTSA proposal will attempt to bring those numbers down by creating new fuel economy standards for automakers of passenger cars and light trucks, with standards increasing yearly. The NHTSA says the proposal would reduce gas consumption by 88 billion gallons by 2050 and could save drivers $50 billion over their vehicles’ lifetime.
Both proposals would require ramping up electric vehicle production, putting gas in the past where it belongs.
“The reality is that the biggest single step America can take to control global warming pollution is to reduce the emissions coming out of tailpipes,” said Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Safe Climate Transport Campaign.
The fact is that cars have been on a diet for decades. CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) Standards were first enacted in 1975, after the 1973-1974 Arab Oil Embargo, and they have become progressively stricter and more stringent ever since. "The Lever" is simply stating the obvious when it suggests we abandon burning gas to power vehicles, and rely on electricity instead. Gas (oil) is a fossil fuel, and its availability is limited. At some point, there won't be any more, and we'll all rely on something else anyway. In the meantime, while the resisters among us continue to resist, we just do increasing damage to the planet, and everything that lives on it.
When I was in medical school, one of the things that was said, as much by analogy as reflecting a literal suggestion, was that the approach to the treatment of warts should be informed by the knowledge that warts go away on their own anyway. So no one would amputate a limb, for example, to get rid of a wart that's going to go away on its own even if you do nothing. But that's what we do regarding how we power our cars, homes, etc. What we insist on continuing to burn is going away on its own anyway, but we keep burning it, at the cost of lots and lots of limbs.
PS: The reason I'm giving my Tesla to my son is that I have contracted to buy an Aptera, which is a different electric car, and is more my style, and gets many more miles per charge. When I'm gone, my offspring can decide what to do with the Aptera, too. And if I decide to take the Sacramento, California, job for which I'm having an interview next week, I'll get the car sooner, since they're starting with distributing closer to their headquarters/factory in San Diego. It'll take them a long time to distribute in south Florida.
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