Consumers are too stupid to make good choices

[kandrathe]

Your point now is that in principle environmental measures are good as long as they really make sense. And of course your completely right. Too often environmental policy is made that is actually worse for the environment than the previous policy. So let's use our energy to discuss about that and not to discuss about if we want the government to regulate.

(in Holland a few local politicians had to go to London for a visit to see how some environment scheme worked over there...because of policy they had to travel by train....spending 3 times the time and travel distance than if they would have gone by train....the wrongfully believe (and a lot of people do) that plane is bad and train is good.....while of course the distance traveled is still the most important factor for emission and not the vehicle...................this of course does not mean that working on lower fuel consumption in vehicle isn't a good thing)

Right. We've talked before about the net energy loss of ethanol as a fuel, but it makes "some" people feel better about their energy consumption even though it is worse for the environment. Not only do we burn an equal amount of coal to turn it into ethanol, we also convert our food into fuel at the same time driving up the cost of food.

Or, take hybrid vehicles, another feel good technology. Force = Mass x Acceleration, it's the law. The hybrid 2500lb SUV takes the same force, and therefore energy to propel regardless of the fuel. Getting 50mpg due to plugging it in at night drawing electricity does not make it green, only transfers the energy consumed to coal fired plants. Then consider the additional number of components on a hybrid vehicle and the energy and cost to make them, maintain them, and dispose of them.

Now on the positive side, using regenerative braking and other conservation of energy devices does make sense, and it was prophesied to be an imminent car feature in Popular Mechanics back in the late 1960's when I was a lad. It would make sense for all vehicles to try to convert as much of the wasted heat, and momentum back into stored energy when possible. However, this helps any vehicle be more energy efficient but does not replace much of the force required to propel them. Every time you transfer energy from potential to kinetic and back you lose a bunch due to inefficiencies in the transfer. We could probably do as much for fuel conservation by focusing on reducing friction within the vehicle, and between the wheels and the road.