Progressive Ideas on Energy

One of the things I always love about the Republicans, and this administration in particular, is that they always throw up their hands and just shake their heads in dismay when asked if there is anything they can do about high gas prices. And while it's certainly true that there's probably nothing one can do right this second, it's a fool's game to not do anything at all. Over at the Center for American Progress, they have a number of ideas which can be immediately implemented which will have a serious effect on our energy dependence, usage and the amount of money being pilfered from our pockets to pay for it.

Progressives Have Ideas: Gas Prices

Low-income scrap-and-replace programs:
Low-income drivers tend to own less efficient vehicles that are also often the least reliable, the least safe and the most polluting cars on the road. Scrappage programs designed to get the most polluting cars off the roads have already been used successfully in a few states.

Feebates:
Unlike tax rebates, feebates provide a direct signal of the value of efficiency to consumers where they pay the most attention - at the sticker price. A fee or a rebate is assigned to each individual vehicle type based on a fuel economy benchmark set annually for each vehicle size class. Buyers of more efficient vehicles receive a rebate; buyers of less efficient vehicles pay a fee.

Letting hybrids use high occupancy vehicle lanes:
As an additional incentive for early adopters of the most efficient automobiles, single occupant hybrids should be allowed in high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. While advanced vehicles remain a limited portion of the market, this would further stimulate purchase and use of efficient hybrid vehicles.

Replacement tire standards:
Under federal fuel-economy standards, automakers equip new vehicles with tires that have a lower rolling resistance, which leads to higher fuel efficiency. By requiring replacement tires to be as efficient as new car tires, gasoline savings would begin immediately, saving over 7 billion barrels of oil over the next 50 years.

Car-sharing:
Recognizing that the average U.S. private car sits idle 96 percent of the time, car-sharing programs could decrease annual driving without loss of convenience. Pioneered in Europe and introduced in the United States by Zipcar and Flexcar, car-sharing programs provide participants with access to cars in their neighborhood for short-term rental. Zipcar claims that each of their cars replaces 7 to 10 privately owned cars.

They've also got some excellent ideas for the longer term solutions.

It's stunning really - this predilection on the part of Republicans to doing absolutely nothing at all about energy except to increase its consumption.

I remember when the energy crisis was hitting out here in California. When the price was finally passed along to the consumers (yes, I do believe in the markets), it was stunning how quickly people reacted - my own household reduced energy consumption by almost 40%. I can still hear Dick Cheney's assertion ringing in my ears regarding conservation and how it wouldn't do jack to solve our energy problems - the binary thinking moron.

Anyways, give the American Progress post a read. It's pretty good. And then start bitch slapping the right with their simple inability to do anything about energy and their brain dead march into oblivion.

Via ThinkProgress