Hi All, The Wall Street Journal article sounds to me like Oil Gang propaganda. They want us to use rock oil because it's their product; and I think they will do ANYTHING (e. g. Lincoln and Kennedy) to destroy alternative energy.
As far as speed limits are concerned, when former Governor Taft raised the truck speed limit on the Ohio Turnpike from 55 mph to 65 mph, I stopped using the Ohio Turnpike. It was just too hard on my nerves to be sandwiched between to semis going 75 mph. Jack Smith ---------------- Jed Rothwell wrote on 11-12-08: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122645159441719325.html ARTICLE from The Wall Street Journal, 11-08, by Holman Jenkins, Jr. [Comments in square brackets by Felix Kramer of CalCars.] ``Obama's Car Puzzle You have in GM's Volt a perfect car of the Age of Obama -- or at least the Honeymoon of Obama, before the reality principle kicks in. Even as GM teeters toward bankruptcy and wheedles for billions in public aid, its forthcoming plug-in hybrid continues to absorb a big chunk of the company's product development budget. This is a car that, by GM's own admission, won't make money. It's a car that can't possibly provide a buyer with value commensurate with the resources and labor needed to build it. It's a car that will be unsalable without multiple handouts from government. [COMMENT: even before federal tax credits were announced, 40,000 buyers signed up at http://www.gm-volt.com, in addition to the 400,000 who signaled their interest when the car was announced.] The first subsidy has already been written into law, with a $7,500 tax handout for every buyer. Another subsidy is in the works, in the form of a mileage rating of 100 mpg -- allowing GM to make and sell that many more low-mileage SUVs under the cockamamie "fleet average" mileage rules. [COMMENT: cars and trucks still have separate MPG standards.] Even so, the Volt will still lose money for GM, which expects to price the car at up to $40,000. [COMMENT: most new cars lose money when they're first produced. GM's modular Volt design is a platform for multiple cars (starting with the Opel Flextreme diesel version of the Volt).] We're talking about a headache of a car that will have to be recharged for six hours to give 40 miles of gasoline-free driving. What if you park on the street or in a public garage? Tough luck. [COMMENT: The first buyers will be among the many tens of millions of households with garages.] The Volt also will have a small gas engine onboard to recharge the battery for trips of more than 40 miles. Don't believe press blather that it will get 50 mpg in this mode. [COMMENT: That's what well-designed hybrid cars get.] Submarines and locomotives have operated on the same principle for a century. If it were so efficient in cars, they'd clog the roads by now. [COMMENT: That's why the Prius and the Honda Civic sell well.] (That GM allows the 50 mpg myth to persist in the press, and even abets it, only testifies to the company's desperation.) Hardly mentioned is the fact that gasoline goes bad after a few months. If the Volt is used as intended, for daily trips of 40 miles or less, the car's tank will have to be drained periodically and the gas disposed of. [COMMENT: In a well-designed system, "stale gas" doesn't become an issue for a long time--not having been to a gas station for that six months to a year be a problem I'd love to have!]'' ------------------ Horace Heffner wrote: The US could vault forward on transportation energy conversion by ... reducing speed limits ... Jed Rothwell wrote: Good idea. I do not see why any highways has a speed limit above 60 mph. Between Atlanta and Washington there are hundreds of miles of 65 to 75 mph highway, which seems excessive to me.
