If You Could Have Written the Energy Bill…

Here is a question for you: Wouldn’t you think that the $14.5 billion dollar energy bill passed by congress would have these three objectives: A reduction in our dependency on foreign oil (currently at 60% up from 30% 30 years ago), an increase in diversifying our energy sources with an emphasis on renewables (only about 6% of our energy currently comes from renewables), and an increase in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards? The Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 required passenger cars and light trucks to meet CAFE standards which are 27.5 mpg for passenger cars and 20.7 for light trucks which include vans and SUVs. It’s estimated that total fuel economy actually peaked more than a decade ago because, at that time, SUVs and light trucks were only about 28% of the market but today they comprise about 50% of all cars sold, hence, an actual decrease in miles per gallon when you look at the two categories.

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If you could have written our national energy legislation what would you have included? Please send me your thoughts, with one caveat: The bill is some 1,700 pages long and I must ask you to be much more concise than that!

ENN