The Internal Combustion Engine – One of the Worst Inventions of All Times?

That, at least, is what many liberals who agree with Al Gore would have you believe.

Stephen Moore was visiting his son’s class of 5th graders to talk about all the wonderful things we have today in our great country that weren’t around 100 years ago. At the mention of the invention of the automobile, Mr. Moore was scolded by a pony-tailed girl:

“Cars are bad. They cause pollution.”

Wow. These were 11 year olds. It was one of my first encounters with the green indoctrination that goes on in public schools starting in the first grade.

There wasn’t time to explain to her that when Henry Ford started rolling his Black Model T’s off the assembly lines in Michigan, the mass production of automobiles was heralded as one of the greatest environmental and health advances in the history of mankind. It replaced one of the great polluters: The horse.

Here are the stats: The average 1,000 pound horse dumps 30 pounds of feces and 2 gallons of urine a day. Can anyone imagine what a city like Washington, D.C. or Pittsburgh or New Orleans smelled like on a hot, sweltery summer day or what all that feces did to our water supply? Oh and watch where you step.

One of the most nefarious initiatives has been the Obama administration’s draconian increases to federal fuel efficiency (CAFE) standards — which are a giant and hidden tax on American drivers.

Donald Trump announced last week he wants to ease those regulations. Under the Obama mandates, CAFE requirements would increase from about 35 mpg this year to almost 55 mpg by 2025. This would raise the cost of many new cars by almost $3,000. The overall hit to the economy from these rules is expected to reach a cool $500 billion over the next 50 years.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of the new Trump standards is that they are expected to save about 1,000 lives a year due to lower highway deaths. The Competitive Enterprise Institute has found that CAFE standards kill people for two reasons: First, they induce the car companies to build lighter cars in order to meet the fuel standards. Second, because the regulations keep old cars on the road longer, Americans are more likely to be driving in less safe vehicles. The Trump administration has science firmly on its side here.

Debbie Young

Debbie, editor-in-chief of Richardcyoung.com, has been associate editor of Dick Young’s investment strategy reports for over three decades. When not in Key West, Debbie spends her free time researching and writing in and about Paris and Burgundy, France, cooking on her AGA Cooker, and practicing yoga.