Large vehicles unnecessary
Dear Editor:
When U.S. Senator Robert Byrd last ran for reelection, one television ad panned distant views of mountains — the ones that still had tops and trees on them — while he talked about how much his daddy just loved West Virginia. A world class legislator, inhabiting a planet on fire and that is what he chose to speak to us about...It worked!
When, in response to the “energy crisis” of the early 1970s, Congress mandated Corporate Average Fuel Economies to increase markedly, they typically also created a loophole: small commercial vehicles, pick-up trucks and the SUV was born. Big oil and big cars have been showering Congress via their bagmen, a/k/a lobby persons, with gratitude ($) ever since. In the 1980s, they gave tax discounts to people who bought SUVs “for their businesses.”
Several years ago, Consumer Reports magazine reported that the required window sticker in new vehicles was reporting estimated gas mileages based on fuel consumption that were almost universally in error, and by as much as 50% in excess of their real world testing in some cases. Several months later the EPA, the agency responsible for these erroneous estimates, came clean and said: Oh yeah, maybe 30%.
Several months ago, President Obama promulgated legislation requiring automobile manufacturers to build cars that get 35 mpg. The rest will be history.
Much is possible if people wake up to the basic lie of the SUV and these immense pickup trucks, that in many cases are picking up nothing more than cigarettes and beer, to discover the joy of a small, fuel-efficient vehicle more suitable for personal transportation.
We see elderly people struggling with these large vehicles, emblematic of something at work in our minds where “off-road” is ironically the accidental fate of the vehicle and its occupants rather than any intentional use they are ever put to. No doubt daddy loved his pickup truck, but the world has changed and personal choices are critical.
The country is just about fully explored and paved over. The easier choices are vehicles sized and powered to diminishing resources like oil, parking space and air fill — that not-so-vast dumping ground known as our atmosphere. There are many oil war veterans who would agree.
Robert Dixon
Berkeley Springs
