Gas prices have many Americans scratching their heads at whom to blame when they pay their ever-growing bill at the pump. But if we were getting 80 miles per gallon in our five-seat sedans, even at $3 a gallon, gas would seem a bargain.
The fact is that, General Motors had a working 80-mile-per-gallon five-seat Sedan, the Precept, that was developed in 2000' along with several other extremely fuel efficient vehicles ' with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
The American people will buy fuel-efficient vehicles if they are safe and affordable, as the Precept and other super-efficient vehicles are. The question is why GM instead invested in the production of Hummers, which get eight miles per gallon, and mammoth SUVs with little better gas mileage. It is no wonder the idiotic company now faces junk bond status, is laying off tens of thousands and closing numerous plants.
We can have even better than 80 miles per gallon. We currently have the technology to affordably generate our home electricity, as well as extra electricity to charge electric cars than can go 400 miles before being recharged. Further, solar panels can be put on cars themselves so they can self-charge, as well as receiving additional input with a plug when necessary. These cars can also have backup gas engines and motors when going longer distances.
Home solar and wind systems are already readily available. My newest book Arctic Melting details how we can make this transition to solar and wind energy for all our needs ' including transportation. It also shows how this is a solution to climate change, the most important issue of our time.
While solar, wind and efficiency are proven technologies, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is not a solution to gas prices. First, it would take at least ten years for oil to reach market. Second, oil companies already have 95 percent of the North Slope of Alaska, and enough oil to keep the Trans Alaskan Pipeline at capacity for at least 50 years within the area they already have. And they can only put so much oil through the pipe.
The Arctic Refuge is the heart of the last intact Arctic ecosystem with a free-ranging caribou herd left in the world. It is just far too important to destroy for unnecessary oil development. It is home to the last culture left in the United States still living as part of an intact ecosystem: the Gwich'in caribou people, who say they would experience a genocide to their culture if development were to take place on the coastal plain ' the most sacred land of their people. The word for that land in Gwich'in is the sacred place from where life comes
and they will not even walk in that area because it is so sacred to their people.
Increasing the Corporate Average Fuel Economy to 39 miles per gallon, something that should have been done a decade ago, would save 10 times more oil than could ever come from the Arctic Refuge. Those savings could be seen immediately, and they would save every American lots of money at the gas pump, all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
It is time that we speak up and demand greater fuel efficiency standards now, while opposing efforts to devastate pristine areas such as the Arctic Refuge. Once this last wilderness in the last corner of America is destroyed and poisoned, we will have no true wilderness left. What a legacy.
It is up to you to contact your elected officials, before it is too late. Your senators and representatives can be reached at 202-224-3121 or www.congress.org.' Chad Kister writes from Athens and is the author of Artic Quest: Odyssey Through a Threatened Wilderness Area. 17
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