Today in Biofuels Opinion: “Fellow owners of General Motors Corp., should we let the government get away with this?”

From Pittsburgh Live: “Fellow owners of General Motors Corp., should we let the government get away with this? The Obama administration and Congress seem bent on killing “our” company with absurd fuel standards…The government’s about to adopt new CAFE requirements, for Corporate Average Fuel Economy, by 2016. All auto makers selling in the United States will have to get 35.5 miles per gallon as an average across all their models. A level playing field? Not quite, says car-watcher Alan Reynolds. He said Asian and European automakers will have no trouble meeting stingy fuel standards. They’re old hands at small cars for their home markets. General Motors, not. It does make decent subcompacts but makes all its money on big cars, sports cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles…Go for real “green” by spurring sales of smaller vehicles in two ways: extend the federal excise tax on gas guzzling cars to trucks and SUVs as well, and equalize fuel taxation.

Lee Pitts in the Silver City Sun-News: “Now that the U.S. Treasury is the largest shareholder in General Motors and the feds have given Chrysler a facelift, we can expect to see an all new lineup of cars…They’ll be green on the outside and green on the inside. The seats won’t be made of leather because that might offend PETA members and Hollywood donors, and there will be no plastic components that were made from petrochemicals. Instead, the upholstery will all be done in hemp. The tires will also be made of hemp instead of nasty rubber. True, the tires will only last 500 miles but they’ll be politically correct miles! Warning: When the tires heat up you may experience lightheadedness from the mood-altering smoke. Some of the features included on the new models will include rack-and-pinion steering that will only allow you to turn left. The far left. The new cars will all have rose-colored tinted windows and a dashboard computer with a 46-inch plasma screen that will allow you to surf the Internet, text message or watch a movie while driving and talking on your handsfree phone. It will also feature turn-by-turn navigation, which you are going to need with the car only being able to turn left all the time.”

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