I had a three-page point by point argument for the NAS findings, but hit the bloody Escape key again and everything vanished permanently. I could just shit. The Escape key on my board is right next to the backspace key. If I type long enough, sooner or later I hit it. There is no "undo." I may have to start composing these things in Word and copying them over. Oh well.

The NAS report. Read the Summary in Acrobat format. Look at the findings and recommendations. A few comments on specific parts:

Finding 2, which attributes about 2,000 deaths a year to the CAFE standards.

Finding 3, which shows that the CAFE standards have had unintended results.

Finding 7, which points out the sheer idiocy of the government insisting on high vehicle mileage and low gasoline prices at the same time. Of course, the liberal solution is high gas taxes. God in heaven forbid that the oil companies should get the extra money to find more oil.

Finding 9, which show that the results of imposing more restrictive standards are completely unknown. Oh, heck, let's do it anyway.

Findings 10-12, which propose an alternative method for fuel standards. This deserves another look.

Finding 13, which shows that further downweighting of cars will kill more people. Their solution: make the heavy cars lighter, so their drivers can be killed too. It's only fair.

Finding 14, which shows "advanced technologies" don't work very well.

Finding 15, which shows that any changes will take years to work anyway, by which time all the current crop of politicians will be collecting their fat pensions.

The final recommendations are, of course, to implement government controls, since of course the market can't handle it. Reasons for this: Global Warming and Fuel Imports. Oh, and the fact that these standards kill thousands should probably be looked into.