In August of 2007 the city council, of Portland Oregon, created a law that demanded the retailers of gasoline cut their product with ethanol and diesel be cut with vegetable oil. Saving the environment was their stated goal.
While this looks good on paper, and it plays well in the press, there are consequences that a lot of us saw coming. Now that the State of Oregon has, as of January of 2008, demanded the same thing here is what we know.
More of the environmental friendly is needed to more the same amount of people and goods the same distance. It costs a dollar a ton to move freight a mile, if using a truck burning regular diesel. It costs a dollar and fifty cents to move the same tom a mile if using bio-diesel. The cost of moving people the same distance, say ten miles one way to work, has the same curve. Increased costs of moving people and freight mean less money spent on other things, and then fed into the fuel tank. People have downsized their movements, saving fuel, which also means less money for road repair.
Democracy, in Oregon, is dead. In order for a republic, using representative democracy, to function correctly clear choices need to be available. Forcing fuel retailers to carry only one type of fuel is the opposite of democracy, it is dictatorship. If Oregon were governed under representative democracy rules then the buying public would be able to choose straight fuel or eco-fuel, like thy can in Michigan or Brazil.
So come to Oregon where the current governor is proud of his eco-dictatorship. A eco-dictatorship that has the highest unemployment rate of the fifty states, much higher than the national average. I bet you can’t wait until the eco-dictatorship comes to the state you live in, raising taxes and destroying your freedom to make informed choices.
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