Supporting Gas Guzzler Future A Big Gamble

On Wednesday, the Janesville Gazette published an open letter by Forward Janesville to the Citizens of Rock County about their position on new CAFE standards and to my surprise, they (Forward Janesville) did not call out politicians or political parties by name. Coming from a heavily politicized right-wing organization such as them, this is a change for the better, but they certainly have not convinced me that gas guzzlers are the way to the future for the Janesville GM plant.

They offered their view that when it comes to purchasing vehicles, consumers control what they buy, and government should not try to change that.

JG Excerpt:
Why have CAFE standards failed? Because consumers control what they buy, not the manufacturerers. — Forward Janesville

Not only does that statement ignore the high cost of gasoline, the entire letter avoided the gasoline price issue.

Sure, politicians will always say that strict mileage standards will lower our dependence on foreign oil because it sounds good, but the average Joe at the pump could care less about the foreign-sourced oil concern. In the past just like now, strict CAFE standards were imposed because of the high price of gasoline, and CAFE standards fail or should I say became irrelevant when gasoline was cheap and plentiful as it was through the mid 80’s and 90’s. People really did buy what they wanted, mileage, foreign oil or automaker be damned. Can anyone in good conscious say that nothing has changed since then?

Although I would admit today we have the added awareness of global warming, pollution, conservation and poor gasoline infrastructure issues, this only adds to the urgency to impose dramatically tougher fuel efficiency standards. But the single biggest reason why we are even talking about CAFE is because Big Oil is woefully inadequate as the vendor of the nations gasoline fuel supply. Gasoline is now expensive. That their ineptness is rewarded by huge profits runs contrary to everything most individuals hold dear as basic fundamentals to prosperity. Our values have been compromised and our stubbornness has turned us into fools.

But I return to this open letter.

Right now, the price of gasoline (not government) is nibbling away at our freedom and changing our buying habits. We can no longer ignore the price of gasoline when we set out to buy a new vehicle. Unless something positive happens on the refinery scene (don’t hold your breathe), light-truck plants like Janesville GM can build the finest most durable trucks in the world using micrometer tolerances on body fit - and market share will dwindle. But don’t take my word for it – look at recent sales reports. Here.....here......and again.....here.

The ups and downs of auto and truck sales closely mirror the gyrations of pump prices. Only the intellectually dishonest will blame politicians and government meddling for these poor sales results.

JG Excerpt:
It’s simply more politically expedient for Congress to force these standards down the throats of auto manufacturerers than entice consumers to make different choices when buying vehicles. – Forward Janesville

I wish I could call them on their position and watch the consequences of weak fuel standards unfold and crush the American light-truck and SUV industry, but I am not a sadist. Those opposed to tough CAFE standards seem willing to ignore recent sale's reports, the current price of gasoline, world history, middle-east instability, global oil supplies, refinery manipulation and consumer trends. It would be funny, if it weren't so true. Just ask Rep. Paul Ryan why he opposes CAFE, he probably won't mention anything from above.

Obviously, there is a lot more politically going on with people when they suggest to others that government should not meddle in corporate affairs, but imply it's perfectly fine for government to offer consumers enticements to make different buying choices. I assume by enticements they mean the government should offer tax credits, rebates and subsidies to encourage people to buy vehicles they supposedly don’t want. But this can work both ways, why not tax people to help pay for the added burden their gas guzzler imposes on the environment and the country's fuel supply? Taxes are enticements too. But enticements as credits or taxes are not the answer to this challenge. In this case they just create another class-dividing bureaucracy that tells people that if they have enough money – they can simply buy the privilege.

Twenty years ago, American automakers lost the auto segment to imports over quality, and if we learned anything from past history and recent trends, they are on track to lose the truck segment by thinking only quality matters. Granted, it's different this time around. If we do nothing, low demand for gas guzzlers will force automakers to shrink the light-truck segment in faster time than Congress is willing to give them to attain higher fuel standards.

I’m not willing to gamble on that, and I have a lot less to lose than many others including Forward Janesville.