http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2008/07/why-market-wont-solve-gas-crisis.asp

Since the beginning of the CAFE program in 1975, the auto industry has been the only carbon constrained industry in the United States

This is because other “carbon producing” industries had been restricted entirely. If I am correct, the U.S. has not allowed the construction of a new coal-fired electric power plant since the 1970’s… a restriction the Bush Administration is about to lift.

We believe the recent rise in gas prices has vindicated our argument.

Consumers are responding by purchasing smaller vehicles and changing their driving habits.

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter vowed that the U.S. would NEVER [again] import more foreign oil than it had that year, creating alternative energy programs that the incoming Reagan Administration immediately scrapped.

In 1992, when Presidential Candidate Paul Tsongas proposed a $0.50/gallon tax to encourage people to drive less and buy more fuel efficient vehicles, he was rebranded “Paul Tax-On-Gas” and vilified as a “tax & spend Democrat” that would destroy the economy. Yet today, due to sheer incompetence, a mere $0.50 rise in the $1.42/gal Americans were paying when Bush entered office would be cause for celebration today. Despite high gas prices, people continued to buy gas-guzzling SUV’s until the price of gasoline had finally tripled. It took a tripling of gas prices to finally throw the economy into recession.

it was sustained higher gas prices that led to the increase in fuel efficient auto sales and the reductions in CO2 and miles driven.

Actually, California Emissions Standards adopted by the rest of the country did far more to reduce CO2 emissions nationwide… emission standards that the Bush Administration recently weakened. The State of California even took the EPA to court to sue for the right to impose stricter emissions standards than the rest of the country.

The U.S. auto industry fought all of these standards and only relented when they became law.

All of the positive effects of Americans buying more fuel efficient vehicles and lower CO2 due to Americans driving less often are all goals responsible Democrats have been seeking since the 1970’s, but it took the most inept and destructive Republican Administration in history to finally force that change in a manner that is destroying… rather than growing… the economy.