3/9/2005
Paul Wolfowitz: True Believer
There's a story floating around about Paul Wolfowitz. The idea is that he owns a Toyota Prius, and he's either advising his staff to get a Prius, or in this version, actually buying them a Prius:
Now, Wolfowitz seems to stick to his guns - I saw the story recently about how he has a couple of Prius's, is ordering them for everyone in his office - he is walking the walk to do ANYTHING that limits what he perceives as the danger from the Middle East - which in this case, means starting to wean the U.S. from oil.What this is supposed to show is that Wolfowitz, though possibly a dangerous lunatic, is a True Believer. He believes in indepence from foreign oil to such an extreme, that he's willing to drive a Prius.
I should mention that Paul and I both live and work in DC. He's been around town for a couple of years, so I'm surprised that he's missed this: We have one of the biggest fucking subways in the entire fucking universe. I'm just trying to suggest that Mr. Wolfowitz may want to consider some of the energy-saving strategies us common folk use.
I should also point out to Paul that the reason we're in this mess (by this mess I mean our dependence on foreign oil, and not necessarily the dozen or so other messes we're currently in) is because of lazy beaurocrats like himself.
Here's a plot of the CAFE standard (required mpg of your car) over the years:
One of the things that may strike you is how little things have changed since 1985. We are indeed living up to the standard of doing as little as possible (nothing) to solve a problem through government.
I'll anticipate the argument that while the requirement may not have changed, the cars themselves are more efficient. Some of them are, some of them aren't. Here's the bottom line: the average car gets 21.5 mpg. The average light truck gets 17.2 mpg (source: EPA).
If the average passenger car actually got 27.5 mpg, and the average truck got 18 mpg (including the heavier SUVs which have no efficiency requirement), then we would save an amount of oil equal to the peak production capacity of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
I've got to remember to write to Gale Norton about this when she gets back from snowmobiling through Yellowstone Park.
Notice that I'm not proposing anything crazy like riding the subway instead of driving to work (I'm looking at you, Paul Wolfowitz), or gasp, riding your bike to work, I'm suggesting that our cars and trucks should meet the really low standards we've already set for them.
File under: ANWR.
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