WATCH THE VIDEO (below)About three decades ago, the United States badly suffered from high petroleum prices. Now, it's as if it never learned. Petroleum, which primarily comes from countries that cannot really be considered as the best friends of the United States, still hurts the economy. A movement in its price sends fear and anger at its population and yet, almost nothing is being done to reduce the country's dependence upon it.
Despite its economic and technological might, it lags behind much smaller economies in terms of automobile technology, specifically in terms of fuel efficiency. In a report published by the International Council on Clean Transportation, US vehicles lag behind Canada, South Korea, Australia, China, Europe Union and Japan in vehicle fuel economy.
"US says we can't do better emissions and be competitive (the "pro business" angle), yet China/Japan did - and now US can't even sell cars in China due to our lack of ability to deal with their emissions regulations. And, how are American car companies doing in the global economy? Crappy. This problem is a very good counter example to pure (short term) capatalist thinking - its a case of "short term gain" and "long term" - Al Gore, as quoted here.
With its might, the US can take the lead and throw much of its money to expedite the development of cars that run on clean & renewable energy. One example is a feature in the Discovery Channel where a car was shown to be capable of running 125 miles on a single tank of compressed air. It can be done.
Comments