Obama understands the role (or the place) of the President, which is to execute laws on the books, recommend new laws to the legislature, lobby for passage of laws he advocates, and veto laws that he feels are wrong. Oh and he gets to make lots of polictical appointments including some supreme court justices.
He understands the President’s place, you need to take more courses in political science. You don’t like what he is doing, but he is operating just as the constitution gives any President the power and authority to act.
The tax should be based on weight and horsepower, regardless of what you call the vehicle. Calling an SUV a truck allowed the companies to get away with a lower mileage limit, a giant size loophole. A real truck used commercially will get a tax rebate if the user has a business or a farm.
So, a super-compact minivan with a frugal diesel will still allow the soccer mom to load all the kids in and not be taxed excessively. A Ford Mustang V8 on the other hand would feel the full impact of the tax.
I lived beside a retired English farmer during my stay in Malaysia. He had a V8 Jeep Grand Cherokee when living in England; a totally unaffordable car for the avergare Brit. But because he did use it as a farm vehicle, including towing his prize bull to the Fair, he was able to afford it.
So can I still pull my boat pick up 4x8 sheets of plywood and drywall? If we did not export so much domestic oil I might consider it in the best interest of the US. I have to wonder also about all the cars sucking electricity from the power grid. Electricity prices will go up, then there will probably be a nuclear reactor near you (in your back yard so to speak) to produce electricity, is that what you really want?
The fact remains that these changes are going to effectively make inexpenisive, yet powerful/fun to drive cars much harder to come by. Today I can walk into a Ford dealership plunk down $26k and drive out in a 315 HP Mustang. Will I be able to do the same in 2016? These new standards may very well do away with cheap speed. Soon only the wealthy will be able to afford such vehicles. The unwashed masses will have to make due with beige Yarises (Yari?). Sounds alot like Europe doesn’t it.
I do have a nuclear reactor in my back yard (not literally, it’s about 20 miles away). I’m fine with it. It also keeps the lake nice and warm well into October.
This has nothing to do with Obama…This has to do with importing 60% of our petroleum, much of it from unfriendly countries, at prices that are set by the whim of speculators. We simply can’t afford the drain on our treasury paying for all this imported fuel.
I didn’t realize legislating the design of cars was in his job description. I stand corrected.
No you can put a trailer behind the civic to get 4x8 sheets of drywall, thats what I do if I need minimal pieces, if I need alot I use my 93 Toyota pickup, it sits alot but I use it when I need to get alot of stuff. You can pull you boat with a fuel efficient pickup if its a small boat. If its a big boat, good for you.
Who said anything about cars sucking electricity, my cars are not hybrids, I don’t think hybrids are good ideas for most people, I think its a me too fad right now just like Suvs were. Electricity prices are going to go up if we ditch Coal, which I have mixed feelings about. Nuclear is actually very safe, Btw.
I never said I agreed with the new standards I just wondered what Obese Suv driving soccer moms are going to do, most people around here in Suvs are fairly overweight, are lazy,nhave a cell phone glued to thier head and seem to be awful drivers. They will not fit in a small car. The only thing they go to the hardware store for is to get thier Cfl bulbs because they think they are going to save the world with them. They have no need to buy drywall or plywood because they hire everything out. I do not have that luxury. Alot of people Need trucks and Suvs, and alot don’t.
I just don’t like Suvs because alot of people that drive them annoy me, I mean come on, the Semi truck in front of Suv Susie Or Pickup Pete just took the ramp at 40mph, so the Suv takes it at 25mph, are they really that unstable…
Let me be clear, I am not a Greenie, I am not a tree hugger, I am a hard working guy that doesn’t sit behind a desk all day, I have calloused hands, Bruised knees and I earn my money. I am not a huge fan of many of Obamas ideas. I just don’t need a 1500 series pickup to go get 10 bags of mulch at home depot once a year. Or a Hemi dodge Big horn addition to pull my John boat.
WASHINGTON, July 3 (Reuters) - While the U.S. oil industry wants access to more federal lands to help reduce reliance on foreign suppliers, American-based companies are shipping record amounts of gasoline and diesel fuel to other countries.
A record 1.6 million barrels a day in U.S. refined petroleum products were exported during the first four months of this year, up 33 percent from 1.2 million barrels a day over the same period in 2007. Shipments this February topped 1.8 million barrels a day for the first time during any month, according to final numbers from the Energy Department.
The surge in exports appears to contradict the pleas from the U.S. oil industry and the Bush administration for Congress to open more offshore waters and Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.
“We can help alleviate shortages by drilling for oil and gas in our own country,” President Bush told reporters this week. “We have got the opportunity to find more crude oil here at home.”
“As a nation, we can have more control over our energy destiny by supplying more of the oil and natural gas we’ll be consuming from resources here at home,” Red Cavaney, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said in a letter last week to U.S. lawmakers.
But environmentalists and other opponents to expanding drilling areas could seize on the record exports to argue Congress should not open more acres if U.S. refineries are churning crude oil into petroleum products that are sent out of the American market.
“It doesn’t look good to say: ‘We need more oil.’ But then export the refined products that you’re getting. It doesn’t seem to be consistent,” said Jim Presswood, energy lobbyist for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Nuclear is actually very safe,
Until you consider burying the waste with a 1,000 year half life and not expecting any problems.
A Good Friend Of Mine Was A Nuclear Power Plant Operator For Many, Many Years.
Several years ago the plant was decommissioned and went off-line for good. It had reached it’s programmed useful life.
There never was a problem with this plant and neighbors in it’s upscale (wealthy suburbs) locale never complained. Now the complaints have surfaced because the warm water, from the cooling system, being discharged into Lake Michigan has ceased. You see, this was the most popular fishing site in our entire region.
CSA
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing! Canada and Mexico are the biggest EXPORTERS of crude oil to the US. Mexico has a shortage of refining capacity due to under-investment. As a result, some of that imported oil is refined and re-exported to Mexico. Makes a great deal of sense for both countries.
Similarly, Canada is the number one exporter of crude to the US. Of the over ONE MILLION barrels per day the US imports from Canada, a small amount, 40,000 barrels/day is refined in Mid West US refineries, and exported back to Central Canada which currently has a shortage in refining capacity.
Meanwhile, in Eastern Canada a very large 300,000 barrel per day refinery exports large amounts of refined fuels to the Eastern US for, guess why, proximity reasons.
There are export refineries in Trinidad, the Virgin Islands, Sardinia, in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc. One of the largest refinery complexes in the world is in Rotterdam, Holland, a country of only 14 million. Nearly all the output is exported, a lot to the US.
In summary, the US is the world’s largest consumer of petroleum products, and produces less than 50% of the crude oil to make these. On a net balance, the US is running a horrific trade deficit and imports oil from a number of unfriendly and unstable countries (Canada and Mexico excepted), not a good situation for a World Power.
Lawyers and social activists are masters of quoting things out of context and twisting facts to suit their purpose. Do some research on international trade before you believe anything you read!
Use your imagination; putting a turbo-charged 2 liter engine in a very light coupe will make it a real screamer, yet it would only have 1/2 the horsepower of the overweight Mustang.
One of the most exciting cars to drive is the Lotus Elise, a feather weight car with a Toyota 4 cylinder engine. A Yaris with some tweeking will out-drag a V8 Mustang. Adding more horsepower to a light car performs wonders.
If you think the Volkswagen GTI is a boring car, I rest my case!
What is omitted is that oil companies already have land they have leased and are not drilling for additional oil. IMHO we should not give them more land to sit on under the premise of drilling until they explore the land they are currently sitting on.
I’ve driven WRXs, Evos, GTIs, and SVT Foci before. I actually liked the WRX so much I considered buying one, but I decided on the Mustang since it was RWD, cheaper to buy, far less mechanically complex, and the noise it makes is more pleasing to me. Stock the Yaris is a high 16-low 17 second car. It’s going to take a hell of alot of tweaking to keep up with a V8 Mustang. I wouldn’t consider the GTI since it’s front wheel drive and I do not care for front wheel drive vehicles, as they tend to understeer too much for my taste. The Lotus is a nice track car, but it’s impractical for a daily driver and overpriced for what you get. In the summer I drive the family Triumph TR6 around; I even attempted to autocross it once, but shockingly (no pun intended) electrical problems kept that from happening. As the mighty TR6 refused to crank the day I was planning to take it out.
Executive Ready To Sign Death Warrants For Thousnds Of American Citizens.
New CAFE Standards will kill, maim, and cripple many innocent people. It’s not worth doing. It’s a “feel good” thing. Besides, people should be free to choose what they drive and the government has no business dictating standards and killing people. This is still The United States Of America.
This is what I’m talking about.
Click link: http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=48340
Ok, here are some honest figures; My 2009 Corolla, which has as much interior room as my 2002 Camry did, has on the computer after 1 yr and 18,000 miles an average of 38.1 mpg. When I first got it I was getting 40.3 mpg tank to tank driving under 65 on the highway and like a little old lady in town. I now drive 70-75 on the highway. My Sprinter based 22 foot Airstream RV get’s 25 mpg on the highway at 60 mph and overall average of 21 tank to tank. This is a 5 cyl tubrocharged MB diesel and weighs in at over 8,000 lbs. The Corolla cost me $17,000. My wife’s Civic get’s 39 mpg. And my '96 Isuzu PU get’s 28 mpg. I can haul or pull or carry anything or anybody with this stable of vehicles. My point is I not only can achieve the 2012 standards today but the 2016 standards as well. I rest my case.
I happen to be among those who believe that Obama would appear to perceive the presidency as the “Top office” with absolute power and the executive branch as having powers superceding the legislative and judicial branches. He’s demonstrated this with his use of the Federal Reserve to take over Fannie May and Freddy Mac and to assume autority over the financial community, he’s expressed in his criteria for federal judges including the Supreeme Court appointees his desire to have judges who make decisions based on social impact rather than interpretation of the laws.
Yes, I believe he also has the perception that the administrative branch should be making policy decisions in the automotive industry and has used the “bailout” money as a “club” to enforce what he believes is the best direction for them to take. While he’s allowing the perception that the boards of directors are making the decisions, they clearly need to make the decisions he wants in order to get bailed out. The firing of the GM CEO and Chrysler having to enter into a “shotgun marriage” with Fiat are two clear examples.
Mileage standards I believe are another example. CAFE regulations are legislatively introduced, and changes to the criteria should also be legislative and not executive. Currently these criteria are being implemented by the adminiatrative agency created by the legislation and subject to executive branch direction. Little known is that administrative bodies often assume the latitude to impose criteria beyond the original legislation.
These developments in the power of the executiive branch were not what the founders intended. As a matter of fact the “seperation of powers” and the judicial branch as an equal power were intended to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful. I fear the path we’re on is not as intended.
This philosophy will, I fear, continue to expand. There is an old belief that if we allow those in power to step beyond their bounds because what they’re doing does not affect us, eventually they will do something that DOES affect us. We’re beginning to see that happen.
In summary, national security and foreighn affairs are the president’s to command. The economy should not be. And the courts should be interpreting the laws, not ruling based on social agenda.
Because it’s free (in theory) country and people are free to live their lives as they choose (again, in theory). If you want to drive a gas guzzling vehicle you should be able to, and you are already effectively paying more for it since you are using more taxable fuel. The person in the Honda Fit doesn’t pay as much in fuel taxes because the car doesn’t use as much fuel. It’s very fair system as is.
Years ago the government told you had to have seat belts, padded dash boards and other safety equipment. The cars companies said these items would add too much to the cost of the car and they wouldn’t do it until forced to by the govt. Sound familiar? The government has been deciding what you should drive for years. Nothing new.