{"id":16445,"date":"2008-08-01T16:40:45","date_gmt":"2008-08-01T20:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/16411.html"},"modified":"2008-08-01T16:40:45","modified_gmt":"2008-08-01T20:40:45","slug":"since-when-do-republicans-oppose-routine-auto-maintenance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/since-when-do-republicans-oppose-routine-auto-maintenance\/","title":{"rendered":"Since when do Republicans oppose routine auto maintenance?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barack Obama reminded an audience yesterday that American consumers can save money and improve fuel efficiency by keeping their tired inflated and getting regular tune-ups. I thought this was just common sense, and one of those simple steps that everyone already knew about.<\/p>\n

Apparently, Republicans have decided that it’s worthy of mockery.<\/p>\n

“[Obama] suggested we put air in our tires to save on gas,” McCain told<\/a> a group of voters. “My friends, let’s do that, but do you think that’s enough to break our dependence on Middle Eastern oil? I don’t think so.”<\/p>\n

Well, Obama didn’t say we could break our dependence if we inflated our tires; he said we could save money and improve fuel efficiency. It won’t “break our dependence on Middle Eastern oil” if we open up more of America’s coastlines to oil drilling, either, but it’s suddenly become the basis for McCain’s entire energy policy.<\/p>\n

But it seems Republicans really are worked up about this tire thing. Here’s Newt Gingrich on Fox News this afternoon.<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

“[Obama] has a position that’s frankly ludicrous,” Gingrich said. “We saw him yesterday. He suggested if we all inflated our tires, that we would solve the problem. Think about it. You ought to take that clip. I think that clip is far more devastating than today because it’s loony toons. What is he thinking?”<\/p>\n

While Gingrich ranted, you could hear one of the Fox News personalities laughing a bit, as if the notion of routine auto maintenance, as a method of improving energy efficiency, was necessarily hilarious.<\/p>\n

I feel like I’m missing something here.
\n
\nBen at TP set the record straight<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Is making sure your car tires are inflated properly to save energy and gas money “loony tunes?” The federal government doesn’t think so. Neither does the auto industry. <\/p>\n

The Department of Energy estimates<\/a> that (based on gas costing $3.96\/gallon), “you can improve your gas mileage by around 3.3 percent by keeping your tires inflated to the proper pressure” which would ultimately save “up to $0.12\/gallon” or, nearly the amount of the federal gas tax ($0.18\/gallon<\/a>), a tax Gingrich supports<\/a> repealing. Moreover, the auto industry<\/a> agrees<\/a> with DoE’s assessment. <\/p>\n

But more importantly, Obama is correct to suggest that inflating tires properly and getting regular tune-ups “could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling” — and by a long shot. According to the Energy Information Administration, if Congress lifted the moratorium on offshore drilling, by 2030<\/em>, oil crude production in the “lower-48” outer continental shelf will increase by about 200 thousand barrels per day<\/a>. By contrast, the production offset based on Obama’s proposal will likely approach 800 thousand barrels per day<\/a>, immediately<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Doesn’t Gingrich fancy himself something of a policy intellectual? Why on earth would he go on national television to denounce common sense as “loony tunes”?<\/p>\n

I’m sure there are some grown-up Republicans left. If they wanted to step up and help their party appear less ridiculous, I’m sure the nation would be awfully grateful right about now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barack Obama reminded an audience yesterday that American consumers can save money and improve fuel efficiency by keeping their tired inflated and getting regular tune-ups. I thought this was just common sense, and one of those simple steps that everyone already knew about. Apparently, Republicans have decided that it’s worthy of mockery. “[Obama] suggested we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}