Re: Please God, Let the USA have a Gas Crunch
Well, at the risk of being flamed and recognizing that this is a complex topic of which I have not a great amount of direct knowledge, I would hazard a few suggestions.
First, tighten the fleet gas mileage requirements for manufacturers and rewrite the laws so that SUVs and light trucks are either included in the overall targets or subject to targets of their own. In the past, these fleet gas mileage requirements appear to have been very effective in motivating manufacturers to come up with ways to improve mileage, and I think it could work again.
Second, do more to encourage the development of hybrid vehicles. These technologies appear to be on the brink of maturity, but the cost they currently add will not be offset by their increased fuel efficiency unless the price of gas increases many times. Therefore, some kind of subsidies might be in order until the volume of hybrid vehicles brings down the price of manufacture to the point where the vehicles are cost competitive. I think there may be are some subsidies for these vehicles planned, but I'm not sure about it. In any case, there seems to be no technical reason why midsize cars should not be able to deliver 30-40 miles per gallon, and even giant SUVs 20-30 mpg, which would go a long way toward reducing oil consumption.
Third, there may be a place for ethanol or other bio-based fuels. These are currently more expensive than gasoline, but subsidies to make these fuels more competitive might be justified when you consider the total cost of what it's taking to protect our oil lifelines.
Of course, these are only a few tactics and would clearly not solve the whole problem, if the probelm is defined as energy self sufficiency for the U.S. They woudl have to be part of an overall strategic commitment to reach that goal, and I am sure that other technologies and strategies that haven't even been thought of would be required to get the job done.
But then again, maybe it's naive to assume that in this era of global commerce that the U.S. will ever be able to get along without its extensive overseas military committments, so maybe there really isn't any money to be saved by reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Maybe the whole concept of energy independence is a chimera and not a worthy policy goal. In any case, though, the above suggestions would at least result in more efficient, if not smaller, SUVs.
