Not Doing So Hot

I just want to relay this tid bit of information, and I quote:

"The Natural Resource Defense Council notes that the Model T (pictured above) got about 25 miles to the gallon when it started out [in 1908!]; in 2002, the fleet of American-made cars averaged 24.6 miles to the gallon"

Holy shit. That's the progress we have made ay? It's been about 100 years and it's still at the status quo. This is only one of the many annoying factors about car companies in the US. Electric Cars have existed since 1897 when the Pope Manufacturing Company made the Columbia Electric Phaeton, Mark III. In the 90s California forced car manufacturers to make electric cars. When car manufacturers were able to get around this they effectively took back all the Electric Cars they made and destroyed them. And don't get me started on the Pacific Electric Railway which was electric powered trolleys in the greater Los Angeles area that went from Downtown to Newport to Riverside to San Bernadino to Mount Wilson to Pacific Palisades and everything in between. GM along with the tire and oil companies created a front company that bought and subsequently dismantled the line. This was kind of what Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is based on, which is sort of the Chinatown of live action, cartoon, film noir, kids movies..

I mention this because we are either ignoring our history and our abilities to reap from past information or stifling progress. Almost every country in the world has higher MPG standards than ours, but we are supposed to be the best! That means that all the companies that make cars have the ability to raise the gas mileage, they just don't want to. That coupled with the fact that we are lagging scientifically, mainly because we have a President who isn't all that interested in science, and as a nation there is a distrust to science in the face of "magic" (religion).

The other viable option they are touting is Hydrogen, which anyone who knows anything about the technology knows that it is at least 15 years down the road as well as being more expensive and not very probable solution. It should be developed but it is being used as a distraction to things like electric cars or at least meeting the MPG standards of China or other developing nations and not be 100 years in the past might help me feel a little bit better about what is going on.