Oiled Again!

I thought it was finally coming to pass.  

This past weekend, there was a Houthi terrorist attack on two major Saudi Arabian oil refineries (one attack shown above), which may or may not have been spearheaded by Iran, which supports the Houthi rebels in Yemen.  (There were no casualties.)  After this, I assumed that people would realize that the age of cheap oil is over and that we'd get a huge spike in oil and gasoline prices that would make us more cognizant of carbon emissions, get us to drive smaller cars and use more mass transit, and - hopefully - get SUVs off the goddamned road.  Especially with the attack on the refinery showing what an unstable place the Middle East is.   And Trump, who started rattling his saber against Iran again, was likely to get sucked into a recession caused by an oil shortage not unlike those of the 1970s.

Never mind.  The Saudis said they could get their refinery - responsible for five percent of the world's oil production - up in running in a few weeks, and oil prices plummeted.  Gasoline is still cheap - too cheap.  And while Americans happily buy gas-guzzling monster wagons. Trump - who is issuing more sanctions on Iran, even though there's not much left to sanction - is also moving to kill the tougher fuel economy standards observed in California.

Which means that, until further notice, I won't be able to see anything up ahead on the road because of behemoths like this!         

This is a GMC Yukon.  As far as I'm concerned, Yukon have it!

Once again I thought we were finally getting away from these awful vehicles, and the Saudis screw me in the ear. Thanks a lot, guys. >:-(

Pruitt Out Of Gas

While the rest of the world is maximizing fuel economy in their cars and continuing to invest in the technologies that can make cars even more efficient, Environmental Destruction Agency administrator Scott (where are all the rhymes-with-glass-poles in this country named Scott?) Pruitt is rolling back gas mileage standards from the Obama administration that would have doubled corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) numbers in the automakers' lineup by 2025.  He says it's impractical to expect that from automobile manufacturers.

Ahem . . . sure, if you want to keep selling SUVs and pickup trucks.  The government is just pandering to American car manufacturers who don't want to take the time or the money to invest in smaller, leaner cars, the sort of cars Europeans have bought for decades - some of which have been made by General Motors, before it sold Opel and Vauxhall to PSA, and Ford.  And despite some decent fuel-sipping cars, along with electric cars and hybrids, the two manufacturers really don't have their hearts in more ethical vehicles, when gas-guzzling pickups and SUVs bring in higher profits because it takes so much raw material to make them. And a nation of consumers brainwashed by clever advertising, folks who love the power and feel of a big vehicle, keep buying them.  I've only known one person who ever needed an SUV, and she grows her own food and keeps a coop of chickens.  She needs a big vehicle to transport her feed and seed. 

Gone are the days when automakers could make the size of a subcompact an asset in These States.  Even Volkswagen, who once urged car buyers to think small and consider a Beetle, is pushing big SUVs in America now.  We are told that the automakers who do business in this country are merely responding to consumer demands, but much of that demand is fueled, no pun intended, by government activity - not just lower CAFE standards but subsidized gasoline, which is why it's so inexpensive and why oil companies are so highly profitable.  And Scott Pruitt, a fossil-fuel energy producer's wet dream with eyes, is happy to keep the system rigged against small cars.

Pruitt's time as America's chief environmental outlaw maybe over, though, as a lobbyist for a liquefied natural gas producer has given the EDA (formerly EPA) chief a sweetheart deal in the form of low rent on a condominium apartment in Washington even as he's been racking up expensive travel bills at the taxpayers' expense.  Trump is happy with the job Pruitt has been doing to enable private industry to run roughshod over a land, air and water, but he may have to let him go for his bad press and for casting the White House in a negative light.  Don't start doing backflips if Pruitt leaves the administration soon; Trump will simply find someone worse to run the environmental office.

Who could be worse?  I don't let myself think about it.

In a very related story, General Motors announced it's discontinuing the Chevrolet Sonic subcompact while Ford is considering discontinuing the Fiesta in the U.S. market.  Could this be because they don't have to offer smaller cars to meet the now-discarded fuel economy standards Obama issued?  Gee, ya think? >:-(