[FLPERMACULTURE] Getting a Grip; Is There a Model T in Your Future?

Fri Jun 29 07:36:22 PDT 2007

Getting a Grip Is There a Model T in Your Future?

by Michael I. Niman

I remember the future. I believe we were supposed to
be wearing silver suits and zipping about in
atomic-powered hovercrafts. The future of my
childhood, however, is now, and as far as
transportation technology goes, things ain’t all that
different.

Take government-imposed CAFE standards. “CAFE” stands
for Corporate Average Fuel Economy. Created during the
energy crisis of the 1970s, CAFE forced automakers to
improve fleet gas mileage. The US Senate just passed a
controversial bill to increase CAFE standards to
require automakers to achieve a lethargic average of
35 miles per gallon in their consumer-grade vehicles
by the year 2020. 

Wow. Let’s put this into perspective. My 1987 Hyundai
got an EPA highway rating of 40 miles per gallon, a
figure it often surpassed. My current 11-year-old car
also earned an EPA rating of 40 miles per gallon, and
it averages 38 miles per gallon in real-world driving.
So excuse me if I’m not impressed with 35 miles per
gallon by the year 2020.

What is futuristic about this bill is the political
climate in Washington, where this lame and worthless
legislation is currently received as
“controversial”—as if it were some sort of ecotopian
plan drafted by deep ecologists just back from burning
an SUV dealership. The future is now, and it’s
dominated by corporate interests that can’t see past
tomorrow morning’s stock valuations. Hence, most
Republicans in the Senate voted against imposing 1980s
Hyundai technology on the American auto industry of
the 2020s.

2030 as 1980

Opponents whine that the bill is more radical that it
initially seems, imposing four percent per year
mileage increases after 2020, culminating in a
requirement for private vehicles to average 52 miles
per gallon, the same mileage as a 1980s vintage Honda
CRX, by the year 2030.

Again, let’s put this all into perspective. Current
CAFE standards require what automakers call “cars” to
average 27.5 miles per gallon, while cars that they
deem “light trucks,” often with less interior room
then “cars,” can average 22.5 miles per gallon. The
1908 Ford Model T averaged 25 miles per gallon. The
“radicals” want 2020’s vehicles to show a mileage
increase over the Model T of 40 percent. 

Now you can cruise down the Thruway, Mom driving and
chatting on the phone, kids watching DVDs, Dad
checking the weather with his wireless-equipped
laptop, the GPS on the dash pinpointing directions to
the next oxygen bar, the speed trap detector blinking
green, the E-Z pass debiting tolls—yet mileage-wise,
we’re still ticking along in our open-air Model Ts. I
don’t buy it. And consumers aren’t buying it
either—that’s why Toyota just surpassed GM as the
world’s largest automaker.

Speedy living rooms

Yes, yes, I’m aware of the counter-arguments. Your
Expedition is a nicer ride than a Model T—or even a
Honda CRX. But the question right now is what do we
really need: a living room on wheels that can beat the
neighbor’s mobile rec room off the line at the green
light, or a fuel-efficient vehicle that makes your
ecological footprint a bit smaller while squeezing
your wallet a bit less and keeping a few more dollars
Stateside?

The same argument applies to vehicle size. Yes, I
understand my 1987 Hyundai and my current car are both
smaller than GMC Yukons. But really, how big does a
car have to be? My current, 38-miles-per-gallon car
has carried, at one time, 13 sheets of drywall and 20
eight-foot, two-by-four studs on its roof racks
without any apparent damage and not much strain. It
regularly hauls 17-foot canoes and 14-foot kayaks up
logging roads. It has carried a mélange of curb-scored
furniture. It moved my entire household, couches,
dressers and tables. It pulls sailboats on trailers.
Last weekend it hauled a double bed to Utica. And it’s
done all this now for 11 years while still cornering
better than any machismo-dripping dickmobile. I call
it a sporty utilitarian vehicle. It’s especially
utilitarian since it’s still rolling while countless
supersized cars have been sidelined by fuel costs. So
much for finding new paths and blazing new trails as
you take your armada of Troopers, Trackers, Scouts,
Outlanders, Foresters and (I love this one) Patriots,
on an expedition of discovery in search of elusive
Hummers.

Okay. So I can’t haul a load of bricks or sand. That’s
why Home Depot has that “rent me by the hour” truck
parked by the exit door. This is called smart living.
I don’t need to drive a moving van to work every day
because one day I might need to move. I can’t make
this any simpler. You can pack your three kids and
your dog into your Ford Focus wagon and have enough
roof space left over for all your vacation tools. You
just need to pack light, as if you lived on an
overburdened planet. You don’t “need” a giant gas
guzzler—you’ve just been trained to salivate when you
see them. Just like now you’re being socialized to
turn up your nose at your SUV-driving neighbor. Yeah,
40 and 50 miles per gallon have been technologically
feasible for a long time—we just need to advance
socially.

What $335K buys

Let’s get back to the anti-MPG argument. One of the
lead “think tanks” producing anti-MPG propaganda is
the National Center for Public Policy Research, which
has received at least $335,000 from Exxon/Mobil and a
bundle more from various auto and oil industry execs.
Led over the years by such notable figures as former
lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the NCPPR was an early
opponent of the Kyoto accords, forming a front group
called the Kyoto Earth Summit Information Center to
spread carbon-friendly propaganda. The NCPPR is on
record stating that “There is no serious evidence that
man-made global warming is taking place” and “There
are many indications that carbon dioxide does not play
a significant role in global warming.”

Gas-guzzling is a hard sell. Hence, most of NCPPR’s
propaganda relies on its audience remaining ignorant
of reality. Their assault on the new CAFE standards
centers on a series of 10-second sound bites, what
they call “fast facts on the environment,” which they
provide to carbon-friendly media outlets. Among their
arguments is that 52 miles per gallon (the 2030
standard) is “especially harsh” and “very likely
unobtainable”—a tough argument to sell next year as
consumers queue up to by 55+ miles per gallon
Volkswagen Jetta TDIs. 

NCPPR relies heavily on the pro-corporate and
neo-conservative echo chamber for its quasi-science,
quoting similar organizations such as the Heritage
Foundation, the Hudson Institute, the Competitive
Enterprise Institute and the Center for Individual
Freedom. Their main “10 Second Response” is, “CAFE
standards already result in the deaths of
approximately 2,000 Americans every year, since
smaller cars are less crashworthy.”

Squished Beetles and rapists

I first encountered “blame the victim” logic when I
was a small child. A Cadillac ran a red light on my
corner in Brooklyn, t-boning a VW Beetle at 40 miles
per hour, instantly killing the family of four that
was riding in the VW. As was the case with all
accidents on our corner, a crowd of neighbors quickly
formed to examine the carnage and watch Mafioso pickup
truck drivers divvy up the metallic bounty as we all
waited for ambulances to arrive. I still remember one
woman holding her face and shaking her head, repeating
that small cars should be outlawed. Nobody saw the
Cadillac as being dangerous since the driver was
unharmed. This is like blaming a woman for being raped
since she was innocently walking to the store rather
than out stalking prey herself. Or blaming shooting
victims for being shot since they weren’t wearing
bulletproof vests. 

Yes, when a large vehicle hits a small vehicle, the
people in the small car are more at risk for injury.
That’s the argument the carbon-lobby is echoing today.
And it’s one of the main reasons why people buy
SUVs—as a defensive measure against Thruway upscaling.
Back to my childhood: I remember standing there as
ambulance crews jimmied the crushed carnage from the
VW, listening to the Cadillac driver argue, “Da light
wuz green, I tell ya.” I thought Cadillacs should be
regulated, not Beetles. I guess this is the essential
difference between George W. Bush and Michael Moore.

Another 10-second pro-carbon argument I found
particularly intriguing was that lower gas mileage
makes it more expensive to drive; hence, people will
drive less, which will be better for the environment.
Get it? It’s your neighbor with the Escalade, not the
one with the Prius, who’s the greenest. Fuck those
sanctimonious, Prius-driving gas hogs. Fuel-efficient
cars somehow make your daily commute longer, so let’s
do away with mileage standards altogether. I guess you
really have to stretch to find an argument supporting
fuel-inefficiency.

And finally, there’s the argument that CAFE standards,
not the off-shoring of production by the big three
automakers, will cost American jobs. Let’s get with
the program. By 2020, when the 35 miles per gallon
standard kicks in, 35 miles per gallon will sound like
ancient history. By then we’ll be well past Peak Oil,
meaning that we’ll have used up most of the world’s
oil reserves, while an industrialized China and
industrializing India will have increased their oil
consumption exponentially. That scenario alone should
push gas prices above seven bucks a gallon in today’s
dollars. 

Then there’s the impending collapse of the overvalued
dollar. We just can’t continue our two-decade-long
orgy of importing more then we export, and playing
this game on credit. Your buying power today at Target
and the Dollar Store guarantees the collapse of the
dollar tomorrow as investors shy away from an indebted
US economy. When the bill comes due, imports, which in
a post-deindustrialized America means damn near
everything except wheat and apples, will cost a lot
more. And oil is an import. What a gallon will cost in
2020, and then in 2030 dollars, will be a nightmare. 

If US automakers have any chance of a future, they
will have to compete with green hybrid diesel compacts
and other fuel-efficient cars currently planned by
European and Asian automakers. If CAFE standards force
automakers to get with the program, it might save the
industry. American automakers are living in a past
dominated by cheap oil and inflated dollars. They’re
drunks addicted to gas-guzzling SUVs. Alcoholics drink
themselves to death. Addicts die. Thirty-five miles
per gallon by 2020 is a joke. That’s not the
future—that’s the past. And the past is over. 

Dr. Michael I. Niman teaches journalism and media
studies at Buffalo State College. His columns are
available online at www.artvoice.com, archived at
www.mediastudy.com and available globally through
syndication.

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