Gas Guzzlers, the Greedy, and the Gullible

Okay, that’s enough bullshit. I’m usually content to let the SUV crowd suffer the results of their own foolish choices and addiction to oil, but now they’ve gone to telling lies. The usual crowd of car dealers and highway contractors are putting up the money for mass deception and buying a full page advertisement in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Someone named James Sheppard from Fayetteville is among the eight signers of the advertisement that pushes “freedom of choice” to buy big gas guzzlers and warns that “politicians in Washington are trying to legislate unrealistic fuel economy standards.” Senate Bill 1419, the object of their fears, would give the Japanese and the rest of the auto industry 12 years to raise the average fuel economy of their vehicles to 35 miles per gallon. That's hardly unrealistic, considering the currently available hybrid vehicles that get 55 mpg and the soon available Smart Car that gets 80 mpg that would leave plenty of room for idiots who need a gas-guzzling 4WD to scoot from gated community to the mall and back.

Instead, James Sheppard and his pals tell us to contact “the politicians in Washington” and tell them we want to leave it to the bureaucrats in Washington to set those standards —specifically the Bush-Cheney appointed “experts” at the National Highway Traffic safety Administration. That’s right, they want us to trust the Bush Administration to set wise energy policy based on truth and facts, a feat they have failed us in every other area of public policy, foreign and domestic.