David Roberts thinks that the GOP attack on tire gauges is part of a broader war against the environmentalist argument that the energy crisis won't be solved with one great push but through a thousand small acts of efficiency and innovation, maybe so, though I really don't think this is so calculated. If you're intellectually bankrupt and couldn't care less about the fate of your country, then tire gauges are a silly sounding policy that can be refashioned into grounds for mockery. Dave's broader point is right, though. In the short-term, efficiency is really the cheapest source of energy we have. No one knows how long it will be till renewable energy becomes an economically and technologically viable replacement for fossil fuels. No one knows how much infrastructure will have to be built to support the new technologies (gas stations can't currently fill your car with hydrogen, even if your car could take it and we knew how to safely produce it). No one knows what the unexpected impacts of these investments will be -- think about how subsidizing ethanol changed the global corn supply and helped create a worldwide food crisis. Efficiency is less glamorous than new technologies. But it's achievable and its effects are predictable. Keeping your tires inflated doesn't drive up world food costs. Weatherizing your home doesn't require a huge technological leap. Wearing a sweater -- as Jimmy Carter famously suggested -- actually works to lower heating bills. For whatever reason, however, Republicans have decided this stuff is "funny." And because the GOP is an ethically and morally bankrupt beast whose only take on the energy crisis is to further line the pockets of oil companies, they'll try to drive conservation from the discussion, because frankly, they could give a shit if low-income Americans have to choose between fuel and food, or thousands die and millions are displaced as a result of catastrophic climate change.
