Unintended consequences and angst at the pump

Barry Heifetz, Las Vegas

Thursday, April 14, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.

According to the latest available statistics from the U.S. Transportation Department, in 2001 there were fewer than 138 million registered passenger cars in the USA. By 2008, again according to the most recent federal figures, that number had shrunk to about 137 million registered passenger cars.

Many of these vehicles are smaller, or are hybrids, and some are even electric and natural gas vehicles. Consequently, they require less fuel than their predecessors.

Further, because of their need for fewer gallons to travel the same relative distances, they are not contributing a fair share to the fuel taxes that support, build and maintain our highways.

The newest array of federal regulations for auto manufacturers to bring their fleet average to 37.5 mpg in the not-so-distant future, coupled with the fuel chemical variations per region, have precipitated the hideous price increases of fuel that affect us all.

Every petroleum/gasoline refinery or oil company with stockholders, to maintain revenue on ever-decreasing fuel consumption, must continually raise prices.

This may be an oversimplified answer to a complicated question, but it is not OPEC that is raising the cost of oil, it is our own speculators (Wall Street) recognizing the facts of decreasing use.

It’s just another example of our government’s headlong rush into “solving” a problem with no regard to the Law of Unintended Consequences.