Go Green Should be Voluntary

Another victory for the increasingly popular Green movement this week as President Obama announced plans to mandate that all passenger cars have a minimum fuel efficiency of 35 miles per gallon by the year 2016. This is just another prime example of government power being used to force people into living “cleaner” and “safer” lifestyles.

Much to Obama’s surprise, adopting tighter fuel efficiency standards does not actually result in any more safety. Sure, more fuel-efficient vehicles will result in SLIGHTLY less carbon dioxide emissions but what about the growth of China and India? Collectively, those two counties have well over a quarter of the world’s population, and they’re still developing. Not to mention that their fuel emissions standards are considerably less strict than those already in place in the United States. Even if carbon emission reductions did have a significant impact on temperature (which they don’t), how would the US address the problem of cleaner energy in developing countries?

In terms of effectiveness, considerable evidence has suggested that lighter, more fuel-efficient cars aren’t actually safer or cheaper. Tighter regulations make vehicles more expensive and a lot less safe. One study found that these standards will cost car customers at minimum an extra $1,300. Numerous other studies found that lighter vehicles increased the chances of death and serious injuries in automobile accidents by around 15%. Of course guys like Obama and Al Gore won’t have to worry about those types of problems because they have enough money to just fly around the globe in their private jets (releasing ENORMOUS amounts of carbon dioxide) and give lectures about the “dangers” of global warming. Typical hypocrisy on the part of elitist bureaucrats.

So who are these regulations actually helping? Does a vehicle that costs more help the struggling working class families that Obama’s stimulus plan was intended to help? Obviously not, because we’re in a “financial crisis.” More expensive products can’t help when we’re in a recession. Is it helping as it leads to an estimated 2,200 to 3,900 traffic fatalities per year that will result due to vehicles being lighter? Probably not.

Regulations like these are the worst, not because there’s something wrong with going green, but for the simple fact that decisions like these should be left to individuals rather than the government. It’s okay to go green, but government has no right to force us into living certain lifestyles. Those who are in favor of the green revolution claim that it’s wonderful. But if it’s really so great, why do companies need to be forced into producing certain products? I mean, it’s not like car companies can just manufacture whatever they want. They do have to satisfy their customers and respond to their wants and needs. If customers wanted more fuel efficient cars THAT bad, businesses would have provided them by now. That being said, if going green is so great, it could be done voluntarily. Let the market dictate what’s best, not the government. Man has done everything from putting someone on the moon to curing life threatening diseases. We can certainly go green if we really want to.

But liberals don’t see it that way. They would much rather get the government to come in, stick a gun in your face, and force you to abide by their wishes. Because that’s all government really is, a mob of people that has the right to go around and impose ultimatums on others and tell them how to live. Liberals hold the belief held by almost every statist, the belief that we’re too stupid to run our own lives. We can’t make decisions by ourselves. We need to have the government tell us what types of cars we can buy, what fuel mileage they need to have, how much they can weigh and so on. Because we’re too stupid to know just how wonderful going green is. Only prophets like Obama and Biden know the true beauty of going green. The rest of us are just too dumb.

So sit back, don’t even think about what kind of car to buy. You’re too dumb to know what type of car to buy anyway. You will never be smarter than the government.