cross posted on my blog Basie!
It will take government internvention to solve America’s energy problems in earnest, but for now, it seems the market is finally beginning to correct itself. The New York Times‘ Danny Hakim has the story.
But gas prices are a more unconquerable force of nature. With higher prices at the pump sinking in as something more than a blip on the radar, and with several new passenger car models winning back customers, America’s love affair with S.U.V.’s is taking a breather.
For the first time in 14 years, the passenger car is actually taking sales back at the expense of S.U.V.’s and other trucks, according to an analysis of auto sales data. The renewed interest in cars over the first four months of the year, while modest, is a pause in what has been the trend in auto sales for the last decade and a half: the soaring growth of the sport utility vehicle as America’s preferred family vehicle.
Sales of medium and large sport utility vehicles – like the Ford Explorer and Chevrolet Suburban – have stalled, and the torrid sales growth of large pickups has cooled.
While much of the slack is being taken up by smaller and less bulky S.U.V.’s known as crossovers, overall sales of S.U.V.’s are down 1.7 percent while passenger car sales are up 3.1 percent, according to Wards Automotive, which tracks auto sales.
While increasing energy production is clearly important, the only way for America to decrease it’s gasoline crisis is to decrease production. Americans’ consious effort to slow their buying of S.U.V.’s is a good start, but as I said before, it’s incumbent upon Congress and the administration to decrease America’s demand for oil. This will entail investment in alternative sources of energy — most notably natural gas, but also hybrid electric technologies — but also higher fuel-efficiency standards.
The new energy bill does little of this (shocking, I know). So whichever party crafts a comprehensive policy by the fall of next year that actually solves the difficult problems — rather than just doling out pork — will be thoroughly rewarded by voters.
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