New NJB: SUVs and Pickup Trucks

Bit disappointed in the comments. I was ready for lots of angry comments, but this is the most unison agreement (with few exceptions) I've ever seen in an NJB comments thread. There really should be a word for the feeling of disappointment you feel when you're expecting drama and everyone ends up getting along💅🏻. Guess most people are growing tired of SUVs, or the algorithm didn't show the vid to the people who would've been the most ticked off by it.

Øyvind Wallentinsen

This was probably the best video I've seen from you so far and actually made me join your Patreon. Thank you for your hard work!

Ok, so a little bit about the light truck loophole (and a little bit about me). Many years ago, I worked at the California Air Resources Board (ARB). I was mostly working on Off Road Vehicle certification, but I was "neighbors" with the On Road folks, and the regulation writers were "across the hall." We (the staffers) were very much aware of the light truck loophole but ARB couldn't do a whole lot about it since it was under the purview of the Federal DOT. It's absurd, but the US DOT determines CAFE even as the Federal EPA is responsible for regulating vehicle emissions. My understanding from my coworkers then was that there was interest with the US EPA to remove the exemption but the US DOT was NOT interested (probably political pressure - there were more than a few Auto Industry friendly politicians in those days, not the least of which was a little known, seldom heard of Senator named John Dingell (I'm only half joking here - most insiders know exactly who he is while the average American probably has no f**king idea who he was). IIRC, Dingell was one of the biggest sources of opposition to eliminating the loophole. Even after the "Great Recession" caused skyrocketing gas prices (for that time) and tanked Truck and SUV sales (unfortunately, only temporarily), there was little political interest in removing the loophole. I was also a Sierra Club member at the time and they too were pushing for the end of the loophole. Clearly all of the pressure to remove the loophole went nowhere because, well, here we are. Don't quote me on this, but I think most environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, have given up on eliminating the loophole and are more focused on vehicle electrification. Urban planning, bike, and pedestrian advocates are basically on their own these days. I also read not to long ago about how NIMBYism came to be in the US (I believe it was from Streetsblog, if I find the link again, I'll post it). It got me thinking about how much sway NIMBY's have over city councils even though they frequently don't represent the community at large (two things stuck out: one was a city council who scrapped housing plans based on "overwhelming feedback" from a council meeting attended by 60 people in a community of over 1500, the other was a train station that saw huge opposition at a public town hall, but because it was a community wide vote and the town hall was just an information meeting, it actually passed overwhelmingly). It's kind of drives home the notion that America is an inverted totalitarian government...in this case where it's rule by the mostly wealth older white home owners who sway public policy from the bottom up. In any case, I have not worked for ARB for a long time now (12 years) but my sense is that not much has changed. In fact, it may be a little bit worse as regulators and environmentalists have gone all in on vehicle electrification as a panacea solution to climate and emissions without considering the cost in resources, materials, infrastructure (remember, heavy vehicles literally destroy their own infrastructure), and human lives as your video so eloquently points out. Ultimately, I feel like you're right. We're too far gone. Maybe when my kids are grandparents, we'll see some meaningful change in the very late 21st century, maybe the early 22nd century, but we'll be starting over on a lot of it since I expect that, outside of major cities, public transit and any pretense of pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure will have been gone for decades (I actually think most cities will have to shutter their public transit services by 2030 with only SF, NY, Portland, Seattle, maybe LA, and a few others still offering transit). In any case, I don't plan on hanging around in this death trap of a country long enough to find out (if it doesn't kill me first). Edit: Done. Feel free to comment.

Jeff Doll

You didn’t hold back and I loved it :-) talk about validation backed up by data! Woot!

Holly Monster