>The Virtues of Gas Guzzling
>ALEXANDER COCKBURN
>
>Since I don't believe in "peak oil"--and regard oil "shortages" as
>contrivances by the oil companies and allied brokers and middlemen
>to run up the price--I fill my aging fleet of 1950s- and '60s-era
>Chryslers with a light heart, although for longer trips these days I
>fill an '82 Mercedes 240D with diesel. True, diesel now costs more
>than high-octane gasoline, but the Mercedes gets thirty-five miles
>to the gallon, whereas the '59 Imperial ragtop and the '62 Belvedere
>wagon get around eighteen mpg, which is still way ahead of the SUVs.
According to the EPA <http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/FEG2005.pdf>, a two-wheel-drive Ford Explorer gets 16 mpg in the city, and 21 mpg on the highway. Must have a word with The Nation's fact-checkers.
Doug