Increasing fuel efficiency improves national security…
Yeah right. This is one of those silly canards that gets repeated so often it’s becoming a “truth” even though it’s demonstrably false. There are several reasons for this.
If we *could* increase fuel efficiency by a factor of say 5 or 10, it might have *some* effect on our fuel consumption. In actual point of fact, if Obama does increase these standards, it will probably only be an increase of a few miles per gallon per car. That wouldn’t result in a decrease in fuel consumption, because when driving gets slightly cheaper, more people drive more cars further, and make up the difference. This is a cosmetic change that the environmental lobby has been demanding for years because it means the government is “doing something” even if what they’re doing is meaningless and ineffective.
The next part of the statement is particularly silly. The idea that if we could reduce or eliminate our dependence on foreign oil, that would solve our problems with the Middle East, has been going around for decades, and it’s as silly now as when it was first articulated. In addition to the obvious contradictions in the argument (Afghanistan has no oil, and we have as much problem with radical elements there as anywhere else), there’s the specter of energy independence. Imagine a meeting between American leaders and the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia, where we announce our freedom from their oil.
U.S.: “We’ve discovered new technology that gives us energy independence. We no longer need your oil. Since you’ve invested none of the money we’ve spent in your country on infrastructure to manufacture anything in the absence of the oil, your country will dissolve into chaos in a few short years, and you folks personally will probably be living in exile on the Riviera soon. The economy of your nation will fall back into the dark ages, and probably never recover.”
Royal Family: “Oh good. We’ve been burdened by this oil for decades, and don’t really like being an advanced nation anyway. I hear the Riviera is nice this time of year.”
Anyone think it would go anything like that?
