A 100-mpg car? Let's start the race
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-lungren30jun30,1,1884814.story?coll=la-news-comment&ctrack=1&cset=true
WHAT WOULD happen if the United States were to offer a $1-billion prize for the first American automaker to sell 60,000 midsized sedans that could travel 100 miles on one gallon of gasoline? ... Last month I introduced the New Options Petroleum Energy Conservation Act in Congress to establish a prize for a 100-mile-per-gallon car. To win, a vehicle would have to prove itself commercially viable and meet all federal safety standards. ...(By REP. DAN LUNGREN, a Republican, represents California's 3rd District.)
A fun challenge perhaps. I can't tell if this political hyping, or just a half-baked plan, but it opens discussion at least to the issue that conservation is the fastest response to reducing our demand for oil.
I am most skeptical on the scale of the plan. WELL for 60,000 cars, a $1 billion is an effective $16,667 subsidy PER car, at least to the winning company!
I agree there's been a long line of prizes for technical advances, some more successful than others. Offering prizes for challenges is a little like getting 3 wishes from a Genie from a bottle - you gotta be REALLY careful what you wish for cause you know the Genie may as well give you what you ASK for rather than what you really want!
A scarier issue than getting what you want is setting a good standard. I MEAN what's with 100mpg? Why such an arbitrary goal? Is it too high or too low? If it is too high, there'll be no takers. And then do we LOWER the requirement later when automakers complain? AND WHY limit it to American companies? WHAT IS an American Company? Honda makes cars here, do they count? What if foreign investor want to SELL a solution to American Company XYZ?
AND, what about diesel or hybrid or electric cars? What about SMALLER DAMN cars?
My own thoughts are we can get 100mpg cars already if we focus on building smaller, lower power "city" cars that can meet the needs of perhaps 90% of people now?
I don't know. I'm afraid of genies I guess. Once you let'em out, it's a tricky business.
I guess I don't TRUST tricks to solve problems. WELL, maybe I should say "research" can be rewarded, but "production" seems a problem. I understand the desire to get 60,000 SOLD cars to prove results, but setting a fixed quantity on a questionable quality of results.
Myself, if the challenge were made, I'd ignore it, $1 billion and all. Seriously the strings are too tight for my comfort.
WHAT WOULD happen if the United States were to offer a $1-billion prize for the first American automaker to sell 60,000 midsized sedans that could travel 100 miles on one gallon of gasoline? ... Last month I introduced the New Options Petroleum Energy Conservation Act in Congress to establish a prize for a 100-mile-per-gallon car. To win, a vehicle would have to prove itself commercially viable and meet all federal safety standards. ...(By REP. DAN LUNGREN, a Republican, represents California's 3rd District.)
A fun challenge perhaps. I can't tell if this political hyping, or just a half-baked plan, but it opens discussion at least to the issue that conservation is the fastest response to reducing our demand for oil.
I am most skeptical on the scale of the plan. WELL for 60,000 cars, a $1 billion is an effective $16,667 subsidy PER car, at least to the winning company!
I agree there's been a long line of prizes for technical advances, some more successful than others. Offering prizes for challenges is a little like getting 3 wishes from a Genie from a bottle - you gotta be REALLY careful what you wish for cause you know the Genie may as well give you what you ASK for rather than what you really want!
A scarier issue than getting what you want is setting a good standard. I MEAN what's with 100mpg? Why such an arbitrary goal? Is it too high or too low? If it is too high, there'll be no takers. And then do we LOWER the requirement later when automakers complain? AND WHY limit it to American companies? WHAT IS an American Company? Honda makes cars here, do they count? What if foreign investor want to SELL a solution to American Company XYZ?
AND, what about diesel or hybrid or electric cars? What about SMALLER DAMN cars?
My own thoughts are we can get 100mpg cars already if we focus on building smaller, lower power "city" cars that can meet the needs of perhaps 90% of people now?
I don't know. I'm afraid of genies I guess. Once you let'em out, it's a tricky business.
I guess I don't TRUST tricks to solve problems. WELL, maybe I should say "research" can be rewarded, but "production" seems a problem. I understand the desire to get 60,000 SOLD cars to prove results, but setting a fixed quantity on a questionable quality of results.
Myself, if the challenge were made, I'd ignore it, $1 billion and all. Seriously the strings are too tight for my comfort.
posted by Ares Olympus at 11:57 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home