After 30 years of trying, it appears the busybodies have the upper hand:

Amid a growing public outcry over rising gasoline prices, several long-resistant lawmakers indicated yesterday that they may consider raising fuel economy standards for passenger cars for the first time in more than 30 years.

Certainly the fact that all car companies have models which get gas mileage well in excess of any proposed regulation has no bearing on this matter. Certainly the fact that these models are already seeing a spike in sales means nothing at all. Certainly the fact that the last time something like this was tried an entire industry experienced a decade of loss and contraction should be completely discounted. We know what's good for you! You're obviously not smart enough to do it yourself, so we're going to force you to do it!

Or, as someone else said:

America is a country rich in resources, both financial and natural. The Bureau of Land Management estimates that three trillion gallons of oil and 362 trillion feet of natural gas lie just offshore, maybe more. We also have enormous coal shale fields, and coal fields, and nuclear power plant technology, and endless alt energy ingenuity. While we should be launching a massive and comprehensive push for energy self-sufficiency, a bunch of point-scoring politicians are pandering to tree-huggers getting high on self-righteous Bush bashing down at the low-CARB CAFE.

We let a bunch of self-righteous liberals tell us all what to do in the early seventies because Watergate and Vietnam made us think maybe someone else out there could do a better job. Our reward? Forced integration, stagflation, recession, exploding social welfare rolls, cultures of entitlement and seperation, international humiliation, and domestic turmoil and riots.

Liberals had their shot and they blew it, because any doctrine which treats humans as they should be and not as they are is always doomed to failure. Will we let it all happen again?

Not as long as I can reach a ballot box.