There’s nothing that bugs the anti-petroleum Left more than seeing hundreds of non-moving cars with their engines running. They call it a waste of gasoline.
Of course, it’s not actually a waste of gasoline at all; it’s just part of driving. We need cars to stop at red lights; that’s what red lights are for, so that traffic is managed safely. Cars stop for a moment at a stop sign, a little longer at a red light, sometimes going back and forth from stop to start on a highway or other major road during rush hour, or when sitting in the intersection awaiting a right or left turn.
You can’t look at each segment of a road trip separately; the issue is driving from point A to point B, not studying each individual step along the way. Stopping at stop signs and red lights is just part of the process of safe driving; it allows a huge number of cars to share the road network in all directions with a minimum of accidents.
But somewhere along the way, the Left came up with the idea of an automatic stop-start mechanism (also known as micro hybrid, idling stop, or other names). It’s an automatic way for the car to shut down its engine whenever it detects that the vehicle has come to a stop, without the driver switching it off.
I’m sure this idea sounds wonderful to the Leftists who dreamed it up; you are no longer burning up gasoline for the 10 seconds at the stop sign, or the 30 to 120 seconds at the red light, or the 15 or 30 seconds while waiting to turn left, or the minute while waiting for a police car, ambulance, or funeral procession to pass by, and so forth.
It sounds to the Left like a fabulous savings of gasoline. This must be wonderful for the environment, right?
That’s as far as the Left goes with it. They don’t dig any deeper. So the EPA started offering a tax credit to auto manufacturers who would add this tool, and before you knew it, 18 separate manufacturers were taking advantage of this tax credit, installing stop-start mechanisms in cars and SUVs and minivans. It’s almost unavoidable now.
The Trump administration is removing this foolhardy tax credit this year, in hopes that automakers will stop installing this alleged “feature” as soon as possible.
Why?
Not because the Right doesn’t like conserving gasoline. We pay the same price at the pump that the Left does; everyone wants to save money.
But because the Right dug deeper into the issue, and recognized that this allegedly environmental improvement was actually a net cost — to the driver, to the economy, maybe even to the cause of safety.
Is there a tiny savings in fuel consumption alone? Perhaps. It takes fuel to stop and start, and it takes fuel to idle. How long you idle will affect the net result in actual mpg.
Hellbound and Down 