Save (money and environment) driving better

Be a better lead chef in your car's kitchen.

Ingredient found at Econbrowser.

Taxation six plus times more efficient than regulation

Econbrowser on CAFE standards:

Overall, Jacobsen estimates that a one-mile-per-gallon increase in the required average corporate fuel efficiency would increase the average fuel-efficiency of all new cars sold by 2.5%. However, since most of the older cars would still be on the road, Jacobsen estimates that during the first year, total U.S. gasoline consumption would decline by only 0.8%. He estimates the costs of this 1 mpg tightening of CAFE would be $20 billion in the first year, with these first-year costs shared about equally between U.S. consumers and producers. For comparison, Jacobsen claims that a gasoline tax could accomplish the same first-year effect at an efficiency cost of significantly less than $1 billion.

Over time, the fuel savings from tightening CAFE would of course increase, but even after 10 years, Jacobsen concludes that that a gasoline tax could accomplish the same thing at 1/6 the cost.

That's not even including that gas taxes produce revenue which can be used to reduce horribly inefficient taxes on labor and capital.

For the n'th time Kitchen Linker says Pigou means less planning, more growth, a cleaner environment, nor that OPEC pays part of any gas tax.

Toyota #1: fear and marketing or pricing and environment?

BusinessWeek on Why Toyota Is Afraid Of Being Number One -- anti-foreign backlash. So Toyota is afraid, and running ad campaigns to emphasize its U.S. employment base.

Kitchen Linker's observations:

• Toyota doesn't have to take the #1 spot no matter how bad the Big Three get. Toyota can raise prices instead.


• Toyota should emphasize (and invest in) green cars. Nothing could be more patriotic, or good for the U.S. economy. Fear and marketing is no substitute for doing good.

Be frugal to be green II

stecay makes the case that frugality is the easiest and best way to be green:

A typical, and in my book unimaginative response to An Inconvenient Truth is along the lines of 'My next car's a hybrid'. Other commentators wax lyrical about 'a Prius in every garage'. And so on. Sorry, but I find it hard to buy a notion of the car as a route to ecological nirvana.

It's not very high tech, but the best (and easiest) way to be green(er) is to consume less.

Be generous. Use your car less.

Kitchen Linker agrees.