When you Drive an SUV, you drive with Osama

Two years ago, I bought a Volkswagen Jetta with a Turbo Diesel engine. I bought it because it places less greehouse gasses. I also bought it because it has a great gas mileage. I get about 38mph in the city and 44mph on the highway. Better gas mileage means I'm filling up less. (It also helps that I bus it to work.)

My Jetta is a very safe car. It has eight airbags. Eight. It also has a sidebar to protect you from side crashes. Why am I telling you this? Because the common excuse from lawmakers whenever there is talk of increasing fuel inefficiency, that we will make unsafe cars. My Jetta shows that reasoning is pretty damn false.

Why am I talking about my Jetta? Because I read a Washington Post article this morning about Congress again declining to raise fuel economy standards. The Energy Bill making its way through Congress will not do much to combat our growing thirst for oil and our appetite for oil from other countries is growing, not slowing.

The article notes we get 58 percent of our oil from abroad. Fifty Eight percent. We are getting our oil from places like Saudi Arabia, where oil profits can be used to fund terrorism that affects us. We are way too dependent on a volitile region of the world.

If the Bushies are serious about combatting terrorism, one simple way is to not rely so much on the Middle East for oil. We can do that by conserving. We can't win this war on terror if we are driving big SUVs that get crappy gas mileage.

Shame on the Adminstration and Congress for not taking a stand for efficiency. It's good for the environment and good for national security.