Your editorial “GM needs to take fuel-efficient trip” (Feb. 25, Page 6) ignores one small factor: the marketplace.
I have not heard Joe Public have any concerns about oil supply, only the usual cries of doom from the same eggheads who tell us PVC is killing us all.
Joe Public continues to vote with his wallet, buying a gas-guzzling SUV that GM is more than happy to sell him because social-engineering bureaucrats have made it impossible to produce an affordable family (i.e. large) car that won't throw the artificially high CAFE goals out of whack. After all, what is a Ford Expedition but a Country Squire dressed in hiking boots?
Carmakers have had to subsidize the prices of small cars for years to boost sales and offset the poor mileage of more powerful and profitable cars. They could sell cars with the “gas-guzzler” tax added, but would rather not have to deal with that PR nightmare any more than they now have to deal with the “evil SUV” lobby.
Please don't try to mask your agenda of increasing plastics use in vehicles behind a smokescreen of concern for the greater good; it makes you as cynical as your friends at Greenpeace.
Roger Rassche
Krauss-Maffei Corp.
Florence, Ky.