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Hummer, How We Need Thee
Matthew DeBord, Washington Post
When General Motors announced that it would subject its Hummer division to what in the automotive business is known as a “review,” you could hear the tree huggers, the unreconstructed hippies, the postmodern Greens, Al Gore’s organic peanut gallery, every single customer at the Pasadena Whole Foods and the United Prius Owners of America shove aside their alfalfa sprouts and commence clapping.
… And here is where its symbolic fortitude is most threatened: For American life to work, the illusion of endless abundance must be maintained. Sure, we must adapt to a future of less-abundant natural resources. Our vehicles will need to become radically more efficient. But we require vestiges of the old dream to sustain our national optimism, which in turn nourishes our national character.
This is what GM owes us, and what the company owes itself — a ridiculous machine crammed with emotional content, the sort of contraption that Detroit has always done well but increasingly seems to have decided it is incapable of ever doing well again. What GM must remember is that, as much as competitors have altered they way we think about what we drive, it’s depressing to contemplate a future filled with dreary transportation appliances. Here and there, the grandiose legacy of a country in love with freedom of movement must be celebrated, even as we figure out new and more efficient ways to get around. Now, more than ever, we need Hummer, in all its defiant, obnoxious, thoroughly American glory.
(12 July 2008)
The joy of $8 gas
Joel Stein, Los Angeles Times
Why life would be better if the cost of fuel here were as high here as in Europe.
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… If MoveOn and Barack Obama really were going to bravely confront America with hard, necessary truths, they’d tell us how great $4 gas has been for us. With public transit use nationally at a 50-year high, traffic dropped 2.1% in the first four months of this year across the country. That mileage reduction — along with people driving smaller cars, and more slowly, to save gas — could mean that 12,000 fewer people will die in traffic accidents this year, according to a study by professors Michael Morrisey at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and David C. Grabowski at Harvard Medical School. Air pollution has been reduced enough, according to UC Davis economics professor J. Paul Leigh, to prevent 2,200 respiratory-related deaths over the last year. Less eating out and more walking and biking could mean a 10% reduction in obesity, according to Charles Courtemanche, an assistant economics professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. And, apparently, higher gas prices also keep econ professors employed.
Yes, it’s easy for me to revel in $4 gas because I’m rich. And because my wife and I own a Mini Cooper and a Prius. And because I work at home. And because some of the mutual funds I own contain a fair amount of Exxon Mobil stock. And because I’m brave enough to ignore the manufacturer’s suggestion to use high-octane gas.
Cheap gas is unfair. Driving creates huge social costs in the form of traffic, health-damaging pollution and global warming that aren’t suffered solely by the person buying the gasoline. Governments usually set up idiotic systems to offset such social costs (emissions trading, ethanol subsidies, taco truck regulations) instead of forcing individuals to pay for their own mess by adding a tax to remedy the imbalance.
(11 July 2008)
Contributor joeneri writes:
Quite a bit of information regarding the ancillary benefits to society from high priced gasoline. Stein is a little funnier than usual this time, too.
Futility Vehicle
Judith Warner, New York Times (blog)
This is a story of selfishness and greed, of self-centeredness, envy and the ignorant folly of a person too short-sighted to realize she should count herself lucky because her college education didn’t have to be paid for with the milk of a goat.
The tale could be called: I Can No Longer Afford to Drive My Car.
The vehicle in question is a Land Rover. (2004 Land Rover. Vinyl interior. 33,000 miles. No sun roof. If you’re interested.)
It is a big black behemoth that stands more than six feet tall, weighs 6,724 pounds and gets, according to E.P.A. calculations, 11 miles to the gallon in the city, assuming you don’t go uphill, stop at stop signs or run the air conditioning.
If you do any of these things, the gas mileage, according to my calculations, falls by about half.
“You always exaggerate,” my husband Max always complains.
I don’t think I do.
I haven’t actually made a formal study of the Land Rover’s gas mileage. I’ve simply stopped driving the car to anywhere other than our metro stop (1.5 miles; about a quarter tank of gas) or the supermarket (.88 miles, maybe an eighth of a tank of gas) or the gas station. Last Sunday, needing to transport a camp trunk, we drove it to Virginia, which was costly (96 miles, perhaps 1,800 tanks of gas), but highly worthwhile, because the driveway leading up to the camp’s welcome area was gravelly and steep.
(10 July 2008)
Official suggests all county vehicles limit speed to 45 mph
Debbie Ingram, Dothan Eagle (Alabama)
Three county departments are amending their budgets in order to make up for fuel cost overruns, prompting a county commissioner to propose requiring all county vehicles to operate at reduced speeds.
Fuel prices have increased, certainly, but even so, Commissioner Bobby Snellgrove notes that Houston County fuel consumption is up about 13 percent over last year.
“We still need to take some other measures to cut back on fuel consumption,” Snellgrove said during Thursday’s county administrative meeting. “My suggestion is to set a maximum speed on all county-owned vehicles.”
Snellgrove suggested setting that speed limit at 45 miles per hour. That restriction would not apply to sheriff’s department and emergency management agency vehicles on emergency calls.
“I have done this and increased my personal gas mileage by about two miles per gallon,” Snellgrove said. “We don’t have to drive the speed limit.”
(10 July 2008)
High Cost of Driving Ignites Online Classes Boom
Sam Dillon, New York Times
First, Ryan Gibbons bought a Hyundai so he would not have to drive his gas-guzzling Chevy Blazer to college classes here. When fuel prices kept rising, he cut expenses again, eliminating two campus visits a week by enrolling in an online version of one of his courses.
Like Mr. Gibbons, thousands of students nationwide, including many who were previously reluctant to study online, have suddenly decided to take one or more college classes over the Internet.
… The vast majority of the nation’s 15 million college students – at least 79 percent – live off campus, and with gas prices above $4 a gallon, many are seeking to cut commuting costs by studying online. Colleges from Massachusetts and Florida to Texas to Oregon have reported significant online enrollment increases for summer sessions, with student numbers in some cases 50 percent or 100 percent higher than last year.
(11 July 2008)
