Energy Policy Without the Fear Factor

Fear fosters illusion often manifested as public policy. Consider the matter of U.S. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE), implemented in 1975 to force car companies to produce more fuel-efficient cars and trucks without requiring consumers to buy them, or to do anything else in the interest of energy conservation.

CAFE has not reduced one drop of gasoline consumption in America. It has, instead, had the opposite effect. By making vehicles more fuel-efficient without making consumers pay more for fuel, CAFE effectively reduced the cost of driving.

Rational economic consumer behavior was the result. When something highly desirable is less expensive, people tend to buy and use more of it — no matter that what is being used up is a non-renewable resource. Thus, in the United States, the number of annual vehicle miles traveled rose dramatically along with the number, size and horsepower of the vehicles being driven.

The only thing that changed consumer behavior was an escalation in gasoline prices. Now, as a result, small cars in the United States have become big business and gas-guzzlers have become yesterday’s news.

..We cannot continue to go the way we’ve been going. It is not a matter of “car guys” versus “tree huggers,” liberals versus conservatives, truck lovers versus truck haters. It is an acknowledgment that, if we as a global community fail to examine and answer “What if?” and refuse to accept or implement the changes required by the answers, the question may answer itself.

And the answer could be one none of us could live with.

Washington Post