Posted by
Compassionate Conservative on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 7:48:25 PM
So President Barack Obama has now taken full control of his new automobile manufacturing business, having mandated that U.S. automakers attain the so-called Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2016 while also reducing "greenhouse gas" emissions by 30% by the same time. Apparently, Obama the mechanical engineer believes that achieving these two standards is a related effort, which, I admit, it may well be. Better fuel economy might well lead to 30% lower emissions, although it really would take an engineer to figure out the exact relationship.
Combining the achievement of these two standards represents the marriage of two of the fondest delusions of the left wing. First, leftists are convinced that Detroit automakers are failing only because they don't produce vehicles that are sufficiently fuel-efficient. It has nothing to do with the fact that GM, Ford, and Chrysler pay almost $75 an hour, including very generous benefits, while U.S.-based foreign auto manufacturers pay less than $45 an hour for the exact same work. No, it's the mpg, stupid, say the Jim Carville clones, and pay no attention to the fact that foreign-made gas-guzzling SUVs sell quite well, too. Therefore, mandating a CAFE of 35 mpg by 2016 will save Detroit automakers from themselves, and our auto industry, too.
Second, liberals have completely bought into "anthropomorphic global warming" as a way of saying that humans are causing the Earth to warm due to carbon dioxide emissions which will cause catastrophic warming of the atmosphere. No matter that the Earth was actually warmer 1000 years ago than it is today, with no widespread coastal flooding or tropical storm activity. In fact, the only provable anomaly due to higher global temperatures 1000 years ago was the presence of vineyards in England, which at that time had a wine making industry that rivaled that of the French. No, man-made climate catastrophe is just around the corner, unless we somehow contain the outrageous excesses of capitalism by enforcing the emissions standards mandated by the Kyoto accords. No matter that two of the world's biggest economies, China and India, don't have to meet those standards. No, the evil capitalist empire America must be forced to meet them, or the human race is doomed.
In a few years the folly of both these claims will be obvious, as the climate fails to respond to reduced carbon emissions as it continues to respond to the many more significant climate drivers, such as solar activity, for example, and as UAW-dependent Detroit automakers continue to need infusions of taxpayer dollars to operate. Unfortunately, as Americans get more and more used to surrendering their freedoms in response to the outrageous claims of the anti-American left, one has to wonder if our country can survive this socialist onslaught. The Democrats are betting not, but let's make them lose that bet.