Law of Unintended Consequences
Posted at 2:40pm on Dec. 4, 2007 Ethanol: The Green Fuel? Part Deux
By Vladimir
People are slowly coming to the realization that it would be a chore to invent a motor fuel that was less efficient and harder on the environment than corn-based ethanol.
Part One of this series documented the impact of high nitrogen and phosphorus in the Gulf of Mexico. Run off from the main agricultural basin of the U.S. causes an algae bloom offshore, which results in a Dead Zone, which this year reached some 8,000 square miles, an area bigger than the state of Connecticut.
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Posted at 1:20pm on Dec. 1, 2007 Because Central Planning Worked So Well for the Soviets, pt 2
By Vladimir
[This diary was prepared concurrent with the excellent diary on the same topic by WubbiesWorld. Sorry if I step on your toes, Wubbie; this is my attempt to answer the question, "What's wrong with increasing the CAFE standards?" - Your pal, Vladimir]
Congress Agrees to Increase Fuel Standard to 35 MPG
Americans are addicted to the utility that their vehicles provide. People are reluctant to downgrade their lifestyles, either voluntarily or as a result of coercion. Whether or not they do it consciously, people will find a "work-around".
The best example is the 1.6 gallons-per-flush toilet that was mandated, I guess by the EPA, at a time when California was in the grips of a water shortage and the popular "solution" was a brick in the toilet to reduce the volume of a flush.
Let's just say that 1.6 gallons is an adequate volume for some jobs a toilet is expected to handle, but for others it is woefully inadequate. Leading, obviously, to the double- or triple-flush, or the defeating of the 1.6 gpf limit by many a shadetree plumber.
In other words, people will subvert Washington's will to preserve the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed, which in this example includes a clean commode.
more...
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