Efficient?

Browsing around the Department of Energy website, you can't miss the positive and hopeful tone. Terms like "energy efficiency" and "energy smart" abound. You can learn about alternative fuel vehicles, hybrids, fuel cells, etc etc. The designers of this website left nothing to chance. This would be a positive feel good experience for bright American citizens.

I set out on a modest search to find out how car miles per gallon and gas prices are doing under the Bush administration. I went to American cars only. Let's keep this thing red, white, and blue. I compared a few models from the year 2000 to the same models from the year 2007.

2000 Chevy Impala
17 MPG (city)
27 MPG (highway)

2007 Chevy Impala
21 MPG (city)
31 MPG (highway)
.....

2000 Ford F150 2WD 8 cylinders
11 MPG (city)
15 MPG (highway)

2007 Ford F150 2WD 8 cylinders
13 MPG (city)
18 MPG (highway)
.....

2000 Dodge Caravan 2WD 6 cylinders
16 MPG (city)
23 MPG (highway)

2007 Dodge Caravan 2WD 6 cylinders
17 MPG (city)
24 MPG (highway)
.....

2000 Jeep Cherokee 2WD 6 cylinders
15 MPG (city)
20 MPG (highway)

2007 Jeep Cherokee 2WD 6 cylinders
16 MPG (city)
20 MPG (highway)

The winner of the above is the Chevy Impala with an increase of 4 miles per gallon in both city and highway driving over a period of 7 years. Let's also give a huge round of applause for the Cherokee for increasing fuel efficiency one entire mile per gallon in city driving only over a 7 year period. This is like thanking a thug for only breaking one arm.

That's called Yankee know how - not about creating fuel efficiency but about keeping the oil industry happy as a pig.

How have gas prices changed from 1999 to 2007?

price of gas in January of 2000 about $1.33 per gal for regular
price of gas in June 2007 about $3.10 per gal for regular

Recapping, from 2000 to 2007 the Impala, F150, Caravan, and Cherokee have improved in fuel efficiency from 1 mile to as many as 4 miles per gal, and in some cases fuel efficiency(?) has remained the same. None have gotten worse, three cheers for that, and I'm sure President Bush views that particualr fact as a positive sign. From the beginning of 2000 to 2007 the price of gas has more than doubled. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but something smells fishy in an era of dwindling resources and raised recycling consciousness.

Incidentally the Department of Energy is slated to receive $24.3 billion for 2008.

Somebody out there is fighting tooth and nail on our behalf. Like a scrappy lightweight they are knocking efficiency sense into Detroit at a stunning rate of one mile per decade.

What will the price of gas be in 2014? Three times what it is now? That would be $9.50 maybe $10 per gal for regular. That F150 should be up there in the 15 to 20MPG range by then.