Interesting vid, tomman. A couple of thoughts off the top of my head.
The UK has a heavy tax on each liter of fuel purchased. The tax issue is bogus. Our government could simply raise the tax rate on each of the fewer gallons sold.
High efficiency engines have been around for quite a long time. But as fuel here has been cheap until recently, there wasn't much demand for high mileage putt-putts in this country of commuters.
But the most influential factor today is the unbridled EPA, whose goal is clearly, clearly to cripple this economy, which runs on energy, by declaring war on Oil, Coal, and now Natural Gas. It has long been lead by folks who literally put mice above men.
And I'm not blaming the current administration. Both parties have allowed this cancer to spread for decades. Remember, we've had 40 years to address energy problems and they've only gotten worse. This, in a country that developed atomic energy, only to see the rest of the world benefit from it.
If oil companies had half the power some folks credit them with, do you really think EPA would even exist? Our energy problems are completely government sponsored. You are correct to blame the Congress. It is afraid. Afraid to take on the environmentalists, or the oil companies to the extent they play a role. And they will continue their mishandling of our economy as long as we reward their utter incompetence by sending 90% of them back to the trough even though they can't even pass a budget in over three years.
'11 Eagle 320RLDS '02 Ford F350 DRW 7.3 PSD
"The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch and do nothing" - Albert Einstein."
