The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 590
He adds, “Americans not only love to drive, but they also love to drive fast. And
driving fast requires lots of horsepower.” Then he quotes an auto writer,
“There’s no such thing as too much sex and too much horsepower.”
All of this is correct, or at least was correct, until the younger generation decided
they would be more interested in following their friends on Facebook than in a
fast car.
Then there was a story published on May 1, 2013, by NADA (National Automobile Dealers Association) that revealed that fuel economy ranks as the #1 factor
in all new car and truck purchases. As my business partner, Bob Gordon, noted
on the NADA story, “What a sorry state of affairs this is! With all of the delicious
new car choices American consumers are offered; for them to rank "fuel economy" as their number one purchase criteria is sad beyond measure.” You can
read the full story HERE.
To be fair, the statistics pertaining to the younger generation’s disinterest in cars
and the shift in purchasing criteria weren’t available to the same degree when
Bryce wrote GUSHER OF LIES as they are today. Statistics in 2008 showed a
cooling trend; it’s just that no one expected – least of all Robert Bryce - that the
trend would become an avalanche.
To be fair on the other side, as I wrote earlier, Bryce never took into account
any possibilities that things could turn sour for the oil industry and use of fossil
fuels. To him, everything related to gasoline was rosy and climbing, and everything related to alternative fuels was crappy and going downhill. Sort of like the
people in The Netherlands five centuries ago when they only thought that tulips
would get more and more valuable. All it took was for a few people to point out
that tulips weren’t the only beautiful flowers in the world.
However, my real problem with Bryce’s entire position on America’s love affair
with the automobile is his use of the quote, “There’s no such thing as too much
sex and too much horsepower,” along with his follow-on comments about the
intoxicating effects of horsepower. I guess none of the people that Bryce consulted with admitted or knew that if it’s horsepower you want then you want
ethanol.
