June 22, 2007
A GOLDILOCKS MOMENT:
Senate Adopts Energy Bill Raising Mileage for Cars (EDMUND L. ANDREWS, 6/22/07, NY Times)
[S]enate Democrats also fell short of their own goals. In a victory for the oil industry, Republican lawmakers successfully blocked a crucial component of the Democratic plan that would have raised taxes on oil companies by about $32 billion and used the money on tax breaks for wind power, solar power, ethanol and other renewable fuels.Republicans also blocked a provision of the legislation that would have required electric utilities to greatly increase the share of power they get from renewable sources of energy.
As a result, Senate Democrats had to settle for a bill that calls for a vast expansion of renewable fuels over the next decade — to 36 billion gallons a year of alternatives to gasoline — but does little to actually promote those fuels through tax breaks or other subsidies.
Forcing innovation without government picking amongst new ideas? It's practically ideal. The only way it could have been better is if, in addition to not penalizing business for artificially hiking gas prices, Congress had artificially jacked them even higher itself. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 22, 2007 12:42 PM
Spoken just like a lawyer or congressman.
Now I'd like them to mandate something cool for me like a time machine. It'll be easy. They just have to pass a law.
Posted by: Tom Hanson at June 22, 2007 2:45 PMBingo! The point is precisely that government bureaucrats are ill-suited to picking and choosing among the potential technologies for a time machine, or whatever.
Posted by: oj at June 22, 2007 3:20 PMI want an amendment that says Congresscritter's official vehicles must be the highest mileage cars available. I want them out of their SUVs and limos and into Priuses or whatever if they're going to pass laws like this.
Posted by: PapayaSF at June 22, 2007 4:54 PMbonus points: most of the excess deaths caused by the increased mileage will be among the wealthy!
Posted by: anon in tx at June 22, 2007 5:51 PM