Cuda340

The Senate voted Thursday to increase fuel ecomy standards from 27.5 to 35 mpg by 2020 and require 50% of vehicles to run on an 85% ethanol fuel mixture by 2015. A more stringent bill was defeated that would have required an additional 4% improvement in fuel economy from 2020 to 2030. This would have increased the fleet-wide average to 52 mpg!

I think that the writing is on the wall. It looks like we will be seeing a repeat of the 1970s when muscle cars faded away.

The bottom line- get your Challenger ASAP and keep it forever!

GTO JUDGE

I personally think once we all get used to the high costs of gas all this mass hysteria will fade as it did in the 70's. I really believe the hybrid craze will level out and then die out. Hybrids are a FAD as were the mopeheads. I remember as most of you do the ethanol craze that went on in the mid 70's. VW's and mopeheads were the craze. The answer then is what it is now. Corn. Alternative fuels started up and died. The government then killed the gas guzzlers. Today we have new muscle cars getting high 20's in mpg... a new vette is getting in the 30's. Back then the big blocks were getting around 8-10 mpg.

There is no way around it. Prices that fall at the pump IF they do will only transfer to the supermarket. You'll see Exxon and alike buying up the Jolly Green Giant etc. A dozen ears of corn... 10.00. a pound of ground beef.....15.00.

I laugh when I read in the news organizations are wanting the oil companies to invest in alternative fuels. That's like having Frank Perdue invest in Beef. Oil Companies ain't worried.

Oil is the biggest special interest group there is and they have the government bought and paid for. We will be forever married to OPEC. I have not seen ANY gas stations with sorry we are sold out signs. There is no odd, even refueling days yet supply and demand is up and refineries are having a hard time meeting demand. HAHA

The government sets these standards of minimum mpg and are now requiring 85% ethanol. The oil companies are dictating what kind of car we will buy. The government is held hostage to the oil companies.

The oil companies have the ability to cause a recession, destroy what is in our 401k's, cripple our economy, drive costs of all commodities through the roof and bring the country to it's knees. When they sneeze Wall Street plunges. The answer is in Ethanol? Oil Companies have too much power. We all scrimp and save.... we eliminate longer trips and cancel longer road trips to save at the pump, while the CEO's are raking in tens of millions in bonuses. Dairy farmers are regulated in their milk business. High costs of milk won't cause a recession. Farmers are not a special interest group. If this Ethanol goes as the government wants.... Farmers should all unite and create their own form of OPEC. Imagine going to the store and getting a bag of frozen corn with Exxons name on it. They are gonna get their cut. History always repeats itself ....deja-vu.

RLSH700

I think it is time to clean house of some of the politicans who supported this and definitely clean house of the ones who supported the more extreme measure. How on earth are the automanufactures suppost to meet those demands? Last time I checked there are no conventional gasoline engines in mid-sized cars that can get 35 mpg on the market from any manufacturer. The best of I4 offerings only get 34 in mid-sized cars. It's called a ceiling of capabilities. A internal combustion engine can only be so efficient. I agree that the hybrids are a fad. The fact is they get nowhere close to their fuel economy ratings at all let alone ever making up the cost difference.

50% of vehicles running on E85? Are they refering to having the capability of running on this or actually using it? This is impossible on the second part. We don't have the supply of crops to do this let alone dedicate production of crops for both. This is just plain stupid.

I am getting very sick of a lot of these politicans that they want us to live like a third world country. They whine about purchasing oil from the middle-east yet they whine about any drilling we want to do here. They whine about needing new fuel sources, yet they whine about the fact that none of it is truthfully cost effective. They whine about how we can't produce enough of these newer fuels but they whine when we suggest getting these other fuels from other countries to help meet our demand. I could give you tons of examples. The problem is they need to learn how to shut the heck up and go away because their a bunch of over grown babies who are full blown hypocrites. [sm=rant.gif]

I have a better solution to this problem if the solution is to use the government. If I were going to use the government to solve this problem (which I personally don't) I would do the following.

Require that each vehicle in production has a diesel option that must get 10% better fuel economy than the most efficient gas engine (waving that rule if necessary in heavy duty trucks) and wave the emission regulations that ban them in particular states. Every non-luxury/ non-exotic performance division is required to have at least one economy car model that gets at least 40 mpg on gas with either auto or manual with at least one powetrain offering. Require that all current oil refineries be replaced by 2020 with brand new higher capacity refiners along with a 50% or more increase requirement of more refiners spread throughout the country espically in areas that are not as badly effected by weather conditions. A requirement that all available oil findings that are economically feasable must be pursued when there are any supply issues and no environmental impact may prevent this from happening. All hybrid production shall cease by 2010 as they are a potential safety hazard. Importing biofuels from any nation that is a lower threat than the middle-east is perfectly acceptable. No new ethanol subsidies will be made and will be replaced with Butanol subsidies. The average fuel economy standards must increase to 30 miles per gallon on car models and 23 mpg on truck models. But most of all this one is the most important. All models are required to have a least one performance focused model with a manual transmission choice. This what is a performance model will be determined by having at least 50% more horsepower and 25% more ft-lbs of torque than the average engine output for its class. The fuel economy rules on these will be waved. Muscle cars and sports cars being defined strictly as having two doors, are waved from the normal fuel economy rules as well under certain conditions. Each model must get at least 22mpg to avoid being included in the average fuel economy for the division. Supercars are exempted from this rule. The gas guzzler tax does not apply to muscle cars. What do you think about this proposal?