Attention: TDR Forum Junkies Everyone at TDR would like to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, whether that means a family-induced coma you prefer to blame (not quite accurately) on the L-tryptophan in those three plates of turkey you ate, raking leaves only to have the grandkids re-scatter them or just name-calling in front of a football game. And hats off if you’re a first responder or active military that has none of those options.
Just in time for the Wednesday rush and Friday mall crush, advocacy group Public Citizen has chimed in with their own Thanksgiving sentiments:
“Thanksgiving Road Travel to Cost Consumers More if Trump and Ford Have Their Way…Clean Car Standards Are in Jeopardy.” This sounds more onerous than all those mall parking spots being full.
In response to events in Washington, DC, concerning the potential “roll back” (their words, not mine) of EPA standards and revisiting the mid-term review some called pre-empted by the previous administration, Public Citizen has noted Americans would save more than $143 million this holiday if 2025 vehicle standards were in effect now rather the current standards. Using AAA’s prediction of 45.5 million Americans traveling—obviously you guys waiting for water pumps are taking alternate transport, average vehicle occupancy of 2.2 people (does that 0.2 person increase fuel consumption?), an average trip of 214 miles, and the 2015 average 24.8 mpg versus 2025’s forecast 36 mpg.
A bored pessimist with a calculator, I determined this to mean the average American will spend $3.14 more on gasoline for their 214-mile trip because 2015 vehicles don’t get the mileage some think 2025’s will get. So if you drive 21,400 miles a year you’d save $314 per year and over a 150,000-mile lifetime you’d save $2200. I remain uncertain what I would buy with the extra $3.14 on Cyber Monday, less certain how much more a 2025 model will cost, and even more uncertain whether the $2200 will end up a net gain or loss. Because, you know, there are no other variables in this discussion.
Views on Public Citizen’s stance and politics in general aren’t an issue here. All I wanted was a peaceful, quiet holiday letting those people on the road do their thing while I avoid the roads—I’m lucky, a little red wagon carries everything I need to Thanksgiving at Grandma’s. But the holiday got dragged into the political theatre so much so that I’m thinking of blowing the extra two cents and driving to Grandma’s so I don’t feel left out.
If my morning news feed has a story about the Thanksgiving Turkey behaving inappropriately toward the Christmas Goose, or the towns of Turkey, North Carolina, Turkey, Texas and Turkey Creek, Louisiana having to take down some monument to their namesake fowl it won’t surprise me.
G.R. Whale
Just in time for the Wednesday rush and Friday mall crush, advocacy group Public Citizen has chimed in with their own Thanksgiving sentiments:
“Thanksgiving Road Travel to Cost Consumers More if Trump and Ford Have Their Way…Clean Car Standards Are in Jeopardy.” This sounds more onerous than all those mall parking spots being full.
In response to events in Washington, DC, concerning the potential “roll back” (their words, not mine) of EPA standards and revisiting the mid-term review some called pre-empted by the previous administration, Public Citizen has noted Americans would save more than $143 million this holiday if 2025 vehicle standards were in effect now rather the current standards. Using AAA’s prediction of 45.5 million Americans traveling—obviously you guys waiting for water pumps are taking alternate transport, average vehicle occupancy of 2.2 people (does that 0.2 person increase fuel consumption?), an average trip of 214 miles, and the 2015 average 24.8 mpg versus 2025’s forecast 36 mpg.
A bored pessimist with a calculator, I determined this to mean the average American will spend $3.14 more on gasoline for their 214-mile trip because 2015 vehicles don’t get the mileage some think 2025’s will get. So if you drive 21,400 miles a year you’d save $314 per year and over a 150,000-mile lifetime you’d save $2200. I remain uncertain what I would buy with the extra $3.14 on Cyber Monday, less certain how much more a 2025 model will cost, and even more uncertain whether the $2200 will end up a net gain or loss. Because, you know, there are no other variables in this discussion.
Views on Public Citizen’s stance and politics in general aren’t an issue here. All I wanted was a peaceful, quiet holiday letting those people on the road do their thing while I avoid the roads—I’m lucky, a little red wagon carries everything I need to Thanksgiving at Grandma’s. But the holiday got dragged into the political theatre so much so that I’m thinking of blowing the extra two cents and driving to Grandma’s so I don’t feel left out.
If my morning news feed has a story about the Thanksgiving Turkey behaving inappropriately toward the Christmas Goose, or the towns of Turkey, North Carolina, Turkey, Texas and Turkey Creek, Louisiana having to take down some monument to their namesake fowl it won’t surprise me.
G.R. Whale
