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The Search for the 100-MPG Car
Since the 1970s, it has been the quest of the United States to achieve energy-independence. To that end, President Jimmy Carterestablished the Department of Energy so that the federal government could write checks to companies like Solyndra — companies that generate not power, but rather questions. More recently, the grail quest has inspired the EPA and the Department of Transportation (DoT) to wave a magic wand and mandate corporate average fuel economy standards (CAFÉ standards) for vehicles at 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 — a mileage standard that not even a Harley-Davison motorcycle can achieve.
The plan as unveiled by the EPA and DoT is to have 11 million electric cars on the road by 2025. The thought is that with 11 million “zero emission” cars on the road, the average efficiency will rise. It probably comes as no surprise that there are major problems with this government pie-in-the-sky plan.
Let’s start with the facts. Recently the EPA was caught trying to suppress a report that the U.S. power grid might not be able to withstand the new “pollution” standards without triggering rolling blackouts. What the report does not mention is that adding a major demand of 11 million new electrical appliances, called electric cars, will very likely collapse the grid. But not to worry: no one wants to buy the “premier” electric vehicle, the Chevy Volt, since it is prone to spontaneous combustion. But even before the disturbing fire hazard was discovered, the New York Times accurately guessed that “the Volt will likely be too expensive to be commercially successful in the short term[.]”
More HERE
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Because the government has got to control every part of our lives.
The concept of “Net Neutrality” lies at the heart of the Federal Communication Commission’s ongoing efforts to regulate Internet access. To its opponents, Net Neutrality is an Orwellian euphemism for regulatory overreach, couched in appealing language about “the freedom of the Internet.”
At issue is the limited bandwidth available for accessing web sites. More bandwidth means faster access, but Internet speed is a commodity—there’s only so much of it available to go around. The amount of available bandwidth has increased exponentially over the past 20 years, to the point where today’s cell phones are loading Web pages faster than yesterday’s computers. But yesterday’s computers were mostly shuffling simple pages of text with a few small images, not gigabytes of online gaming, music and video. Demand kept pace with supply as the power of the Internet grew. Big Government is, once again, promising to overrule the laws of supply and demand.
Net Neutrality covers a range of regulatory proposals designed to force Internet service providers (ISPs) to treat all web traffic as equal, instead of selling precious bandwidth at varying price and performance levels. The key word is “force.” Massive new regulatory powers would be needed to impose Net Neutrality on companies that currently labor under the delusion that they own the infrastructure they have created, and can therefore rent it out as they see fit.
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The National Park Service is pursuing a political agenda to eliminate recreational opportunities to appease their environmental allies without regard to local needs or its economic impact, Republican lawmakers said during a Friday hearing.
From new prohibitions on fishing, walking, driving, kite-flying and pets in many areas of the Outer Banks beaches of North Carolina to proposed rules in Florida to ban fishing and boating in key parts of the Biscayne Bay, the Interior Department’s park agency drew the ire of the House Resources subcommittee on national parks, forests and public lands that conducted the oversight hearing.
Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), panel chairman, said it’s “unfortunate that federal authorities have acquiesced to lawsuits by environmental activists,” but that pending legislation would restore public access to the public lands.
“Someone has to bring reality back to the Interior Department,” Bishop said. “Good grief! This is a recreation area and the only thing you seem to prohibit is recreation.”
“The Park Service has an attitude that makes it uninviting for people to go there.
It’s totally inconsistent with reality, it defies common sense and it’s simply inappropriate,” Bishop said.
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When Obama was asked if he thought America was exceptional, responded by saying:
“I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”
So effectively, the answer is no, because when everyone everyone is special nobody is.
Created for OMG! for America
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Some eye candy for you tonight.
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