In the meantime if the Obama would simply get out of the way and let oil companies explore for oil here, a lot of our dependence on Islamic oil would be lessen. The average car on the road today if less than 5 years old, if properly maintained can last well over ten years. When the public is offered expensive, uncomfortable death traps to placate the environmental zealots, a great many people will simply keep the cars they already have and ride out this democratic- green-communist storm. 10 years from now they will out of power and a very bad memory.

Meanwhile, his tinkering with the rule of law in the contracts system is making long-term, capital-intensive projects like the Pickens plan unfeasible.

Ironically, the election of President Obama is the best long-term news the oil sheiks could have hoped for.

I agree with Margie #9, but fat chance. The miraculous natural substance which hastened the development of the modern world we are privileged to enjoy today has been thoroughly and successfully demonized.

Too bad he chose one of the very worst means to attempt to achieve the ends he is seeking.

Only price signals will cause buyers to move to smaller vehicles. All we get with this initiative is greater state power and a freshly paved road…

No, this will require increased subsidizies in the form of “loans” from the taxpayers to the auto companies. This cost to taxpayers will be over and above the quoted (and likely inaccurate) estimate of $1300 per vehicle in increased cost to comply with Obama’s dictates.

Increased CAFE has in the past, and will in the future lend itself to more consumption of gasoline, not less. Two reasons: One, we will figure out a way to drive more miles when the cost per mile is driven down by mandate, thereby erasing all or most of the benefit due to increased MPG. Inner city flight was accelerated by the first round of CAFE begun in the 70′s, and the same will happen again. Result? More commuting and more miles driven. In which alternative universe can the conservation of a commodity be increased by making it cheaper to use? Just watch as people choose to use their vehicles more, for everything conceivable, from using the automobile for more vacations, to choosing a home further from work, because the automobile will be cheaper to use.

Secondly, increased CAFE KILLS mass transit. If you owned AMTRAK, and didn’t have the government to subsidize you, you would be livid about the government enhancing the ability of your nearest competitor to reduce demand for your services. The battle for ridership between mass transit and individual mobility is zero-sum. Private bus companies abhor CAFE, any type of public transportation loses out to the automobile when the automobile becomes cheaper to operate.

So we can have CAFE, or we can have mass transit, but we can’t have both simultaneously. AMTRAK will need more subsidies. Unintended consequences once again rule with liberal government interventions into the marketplace.

We will in the end be using more gasoline by virtue of this latest round of CAFE, over time, just like the last time conservation through MPG mandates was tried.