What are your thoughts on USA American fuel efficiency standards? Should we support higher efficiency or increase fuel tax to encourage green sources?

Question

THIS IS NOT TO BE A DISCUSSION OF WHETHER THE USA IS OR IS NOT ENERGY INDEPENDENT OR WHETHER USA WILL OR WON'T REMAIN SO IN THE FUTURE!! I'M JUST INTERESTED IN YOUR OPINION ON FUEL EFFICIENCY STANDARDS AND IF WE CAN AND SHOULD DO BETTER.

In 2022, the average fuel economy for new vehicles in the United States was 26 miles per gallon (mpg), which is an all time high. The legislated & planned standards require the fuel economy to rise to 51 mpg by 2031.

For comparison, the EU 2021 standards were equivalent to 57 U. S. miles per gallon (mpg), and the target for 2030 is 92 mpg.

In regard to tax rates on gasoline which are meant to encourage less use, better efficiency and transition to greener sources instead of fossil fuels. The federal US gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon (unchanged and not adjusted for inflation since 1993) while the average excise duty on gasoline in the EU is €0.548 per liter ($2.24 per gallon).

Tarifa · Accepted Answer

I cannot really comment on the situation in the USA.

The European Union wants to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035 onwards. That's only 11 years down the road. The argument is that all new cars sold in the EU as of 2035 should not produce any CO2. There are several European cities that are already banning the use of older cars within the city centre. The idea is that, if only new petrol cars with a better mpg ratio, electric vehicles or hybrid ones are allowed to enter the city center, they will gradually take over and people will eventually buy a new car, as no one wants to be restricted to such an extent that its use would be severely compromised.

There are a lot of practical issues though for the use of electric cars. To mention only two of them, there is still a lack of fast charging points, which makes any trip longer than 300 miles a daunting task. The price of electric cars needs to come down, or you'll create two social classes: one that will buy an electric car, often as a second car, to be able to use it everywhere, although mainly on shorter trips, and a class that just can't afford one and is left out.

As for the CO2 output, the discussion on green sources is biaised. It doesn't take into account how much energy the industry needs to produce the cars. Nor is the production of electric batteries environmentally friendly, quite the contrary. Nor is electricity by the way. Germany is burning coal to produce energy. 36.3% of electricity fed into German power grids comes from coal-fired power plants. How "green" is your average "low-emission" electric or hybrid car if you need to burn coal to feed it? We might as well replace efficient trains by coal-powered steam trains.

As for taxes, Europe has always put a high tax on private commuting, be it road tax or high prices at the gas station. The mpg can only be reduced via a huge effort from the automotive industry. Too many variables to make private commuting even interesting from an economical point of view.

WindAtMyBack · Accepted Answer

I think the efficiency actually peaked in the early-mid 80s. The overall average might have peaked much later than that, but for a given size car, it peaked long ago.

When the economy boomed in the 80s and 90s, and "yuppie" and "dink" became words, people had enough money that they quit giving a shit about the price of gas. They also quit giving a shit about buying fuel efficient cars. People have more money now than they did then, so I don't think a gas tax will work, unless it's a LOT.

The MIX of cars has changed over the last 30-40 years. People are driving big-ass SUVs as daily commuters. Car companies can meet the ever increasing federal requirements by changing the mix of cars sold. If they need to increase the average, they increase the number of small cars sold.

Those big SUVs are already much more expensive than regular cars. If you want to increase average economy, put a 10-20K tax on the larger SUVs. Maybe take part of that money and subsidize smaller cars. That way you can dramatically increase the AVERAGE economy without pushing the tech beyond what is currently possible or feasible.

GoodGuyBreakingBad · Answer

No taxes are fine RN we should raise efficiency.

Gwendoline · Answer

Fuel efficiency. Stuff like taxing drivers on how many miles they do is crazy.

RavVid · Answer

There are limits on fuel efficiency I'd point out. Primarily from combustion temperature and the laws of thermodynamics for gas engines. Doubling fuel efficiency might be an inspirational goal.

Maybe_Maybe_not · Answer

Just  tax people who don't behave . It works, they will behave, in the end. Would be wise to ban guns before though 😆

exitseven · Answer

They should leave efficiency alone and lower taxes

Anonymous · Answer

We need to drop both, the world is still in an Ice age, if there is any chance C02 will delay the return of the ice we need to get it into the atmosphere.

gatixek710 · Answer

I’m not sacrificing performance for fuel efficiency nonsense

RedInnocent69 · Answer

There should be a price for pollution, but we should also have better gas. Our high-grade is low-gradeIn the Middle East.

chrissykerdock · Answer

woke people need to go away

What are your thoughts on USA American fuel efficiency standards? Should we support higher efficiency or increase fuel tax to encourage green sources?

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No taxes are fine RN we should raise efficiency.