Democrats working on a bill to require new fuel economy standards

you make a lot of assumptions about me, but i'll answer your questions, since you like to rip:

1. i bike to work. the prius is my wife's. she commutes with our child. he goes to school in the building next to hers. on days when her commute does not coincide with his, he rides the bus. is that OK?

2. "my car" is 8 years old. my previous car was 13 when it was replaced. if i was embarrassed by a car, would i have purchased what my friends refer to as the vehicular equivalent of a vagina? no, because i really don't care. my vehicle does not define me. do these meet your standards? my tv is 13 years old. i have purchased one tv, one stereo in my life. i still have them both. is that alright with you? both purchased in '93-'94.

3. i don't drink bottled water, i bring my own. i did start a recycling program at work. we generate 1/2 bag of garbage in our household per week.

4. we are currently under contract for installation of solar panels on our roof. this will replace/augment our current electrical. i am researching alternative heat/hot water. geothermal is impractical in our area according to local contractors. i'm looking into other forms of alternative energy. my house is 1100 square feet. any suggestions? you have all the answers.

5. air conditioning? my house doesn't have it. we run the heat a lot, i guess. we keep it at 60 daytime/54 nighttime. as for riding a motorcycle, not very practical in the area i live in, as you might guess by the rest of this comment.

i responded to your post because you presume to know what all prius drivers think and do. how is that any different than those who make assumptions about your SUV?

FOR THE LAST TIME, this would effectively mean a speed limit on all cars. Do you know a thing about automobiles?

L.A.P.D. beats Whites wrote:

There should be mandatory 55 MPH speed governors installed on all cars that weigh 3000 pounds or more, including SUVs, minivans, trucks, tractor trailers, school buses, passenger vans, limousines, commercial trucks, etc. That would shift people to more fuel efficient cars, and increase safety on the highways and streets.

a rant wrote:

Your Prius batteries are terrible for the environment and need to be replaced before the car reaches its max mileage.

Actually, Prius batteries are recycled, so they're not so bad for the environment, and they have a very long service life to begin with. It should also be noted that battery technology is one area that has been showing great advances in the last 10 years or so.

A couple other points from elsewhere:

Regarding house vs. car energy usage, if people stop thinking in terms of a centralized power generation infrastructure, they will realize that with expected advances in photovoltaics, everyone has a mini-generator at their house, their roof! There is nice parallel here with the decentralization of computing power (dumb terminals slaved to a central processor vs. distributed networked computing). I might add that a distributed system is far more robust to "point of attack" than a centralized system.

Regarding CAFE standards, current fleet fuel mileage averages are actually WORSE than they were in the late 1980s. This is IN SPITE of the advances in engine technology, tires, materials, etc. The fact of the matter is that we drive much larger, heavier vehicles now which means two things: lower fuel mileage and higher profits for Detroit. Apparently, we need these larger vehicles in order to haul around our extra wide butts and 64 oz. big gulps. Just how efficient is it to use a 5000 lb. vehicle to haul a 175 lb. payload?

We already tried that, it was a mandatory speed limit for ALL vehicles, it didn't work.

L.A.P.D. beats Whites wrote:

There should be mandatory 55 MPH speed governors installed on all cars that weigh 3000 pounds or more, including SUVs, minivans, trucks, tractor trailers, school buses, passenger vans, limousines, commercial trucks, etc. That would shift people to more fuel efficient cars, and increase safety on the highways and streets.

With speed governors it will work. The newer technology computer speed governors will slow down a car going downhill to 55, and they cannot be overridden or hot-wired. Car manufacturers can build in the hardware and firmware. Already some cars have engines which cannot be started by non-factory keys to prevent theft.

It is not true that price independantly influences demand. If gas went from 1 cent/gallon to 2 cents/gallon, would people behave differently? The elasticity of deamand is the concept here, how long will it take people to change there long-term behavior because of a price change? So far prices have not gone high enough for long enough to make large changes.

The second thing to look at is the negative externalities of gas consumption. Why can I make a claim to have footing to curtail your consumption? Because you don't pay the true costs of your gas consumption. I/we/the world does.

When you buy gas you do not pay for:

-The health issues resulting from its use

-The environmental issues resulting from its use

-The costs of technological research to figure out

what to do when it is gone.

-To some extent, the wars/polotics associated with it

-The costs of droughts/famines, etc. related to global warming

-And it goes on....

If gas costs what it really costs, and people paid that much, then they may have a fair argument for unhindered consumption. Currently that is not the case.

-Lightweight materials are not more expensice btw. I have an aluminum car that will NEVER rust up here in MN. It should last as long at maybe 3 steel cars, the savings are clear.