THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 328, December 14, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
GREEN CARS FOR CHEAP GAS?
By Dennis T. Avery
HOW TO GET GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE U.S. AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURING COMPANIES: LET THE BIG THREE GO
BANKRUPT, SO SOME ENTERPRISING INVESTORS CAN REORGANIZE ALL THESE AUTO PLANTS, SKILLED WORKERS, &
INFRASTRUCTURE INTO ONE OR TWO NEW COMPANIES THAT CAN COMPETE WITH VOLKSWAGEN, TOYOTO, HONDA,
HYUNDAI, ETC. -- ADOPT VALID & REALISTIC APPROACHES TO RETIRED EMPLOYEE HEALTH INSURANCE, GLOBAL CLIMATE
CHANGE, & USE OF DOMESTIC U.S. & CANADIAN PETROLEUM RESERVES
FULL STORY:
Now we’re going to give Ford, GM, and Chrysler billions of dollars so the Feds can order them to build more “green” cars
— with gas now costing $1.49 per gallon. How many Americans will pay $30,000 for one of these new high-mileage
lightweights, instead of getting a family-protective SUV for the same bucks? Or a pickup to pull the boat? At $1.49 per
gallon, not many. So Detroit will go broke again, unless the Feds slap on another $3 per gallon in gas tax.
Haven’t we just been there? And we didn’t like it much. We demanded, “Drill, baby, drill.” We forced a Liberal Democratic
Congress that hates oil to end the drilling ban on public lands. Thus, we could pump more domestic gas and oil and bring
down the price — so Detroit’s old lineup of SUVs and big pickups would sell again.
Which way are we going? And why?
My sister is a GM widow in Michigan; I understand the problem of Big Three pensions and medical insurance. But that
doesn’t really have much to do with the sort of cars we build. The costs the United Auto Workers saddled onto the Big
Three years ago makes their cars non-competitive today. no matter how tiny and fuel-efficient they get.
On the other hand, if we want globally competitive U.S. auto companies, it is clear how to get them. Let the Big Three go
bankrupt, so some enterprising investors can reorganize all of those plants, skilled workers, and infrastructure into a new
company — or two — that can compete with Volkswagen and Hyundai.
Let the UAW organize its own cost-effective health insurance for the retirees, where the doctor visits aren’t “free” and
the insurance kicks in for the big stuff. That’s what the rest of us already have to do. None of our health insurance
should be tied to a job. Everybody should get the tax break for buying health insurance, so we could all get care without
the lobbyists and lawyers loading up the systems with the frills that pay off their clients.
The joker in today’s deck is global warming. That’s the real motive behind the U.S. government bailout of the Big Three.
But most of our global warming came before 1940 — too early to be blamed on global industrialization. After 1940, the
warming stopped for 35 years — during the very period when the Greenhouse Theory says the temperatures should have
soared.
Now, it’s been ten years since the last warming, and temperatures have just dropped back to about their 1940 level.
NASA’s Jason satellite says the Pacific Ocean has shifted into its cool phase; the warm phase ended in the last hot year,
1998. The satellite is predicting global cooling for the next 25–30 years. The alarmists have been wrong about the warming.
Nor will Detroit run out of oil to burn. The Bakken formation in the Dakotas gives the U.S. more proven oil reserves than
Saudi Arabia — 400 billion barrels. Not to mention six trillion barrels of oil in the world’s tar sands, half of them
conveniently located in nearby, stable Canada. No Muslim extremist takeovers, and none of Vladimir Putin’s tanks either.
In Europe, 11,000 metal workers demonstrated in Brussels against CO2 limits forcing their jobs to India. In Britain, 40
percent of the electricity will disappear in the next eight years, supposedly replaced by 7,000 wind turbines with a reliability
of 15 percent.
The coming Obama administration in the U.S.A. is selling an insurance policy against the planet overheating. But, what if
the insurance premium costs more than your house and the earth is cooling on its own schedule.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
The Earth's Natural History, Global Climate Changes,
& the Future of Human Life & Civilization on the Planet:
Science, Ideology, & Public Policy
Dennis T. Avery is an environmental economist for the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., and is the Director of the
Institute's Center for
Global Food Issues (www.cgfi.org). Formerly he was a senior policy analyst for the United
States Department of State, where he won the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement. He is the co-author, with
atmospheric physicist Fred Singer, of the book, Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years (Blue Ridge Summit,
Pennsylvania: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006). Avery's book, Saving the Planet With Pesticides and Plastic: The Environmental
Triumph of High-Yield Farming (Washington, D.C.: Hudson Institute, 1995), continues to be popular as a readable overview
of realistic agriculture for the future and for today. Readers may write Avery at Post Office Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 24421.
Email: cgfi@hughes.net
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity