This blog posting is about why I believe that it would be in our nation’s best interest to dramatically increase the fuel efficiency of semi-trucks, and not just for the obvious environmental reasons. Lately, I have been reading the book Sleeping With The Devil by Robert Baer. It is quite obvious by now that a not so small portion of the massive amounts of oil revenue that goes to not only Saudi Arabia, but other oil producing countries as well ends up being diverted towards religious schools, aka madrassas, and towards various Islamic charities—many of which are obvious fronts known not only to our Government, but to various independent researchers the world over. Just ask Robert Spencer from Jihad Watch, or anyone who is connected to the Clarion Project. Or ask Robert Baer himself for that matter. Just off the top of their heads these people can name more than one of these “charities.”

There is also a great video where Sam Harris is interviewed by Joe Rogan where Harris delves into just how utterly absurd it is that we are fighting a war on terror, and at the very same time are cozy with the Saudis and keep buying their oil; all the while knowing perfectly well where all of that money is really going to end up at the end of the day.

Now there is a rather easy solution for all of this, and that is to treat our energy independence like we did the space race back in the late fifties and throughout all of the sixties. That is to say it needs to be a cost is no option solution in order to dramatically revolutionize our transportation capabilities in only one to two decades. If the government were to put down one hundred billion towards developing a new generation of super trucks that were highly advanced diesel hybrids which achieved between 15-20 mpg on average in the next 5-8 years, now that would be something truly worthwhile. Right now I believe most semi-trucks average somewhere around 6mpg for a basic reference.

The key is to get the various companies, Volvo, Mercedes, Freightliner, Cummins, etc. to all work together along with other important players such as Tesla and Panasonic in order to jointly develop a brand new powertrain which was scalable. The other important variable is for the government, and the regulators such as the EPA, to work with these companies along with the independent Trucking Companies in order to make certain that it is a smooth and easy transition when these new trucks are available for purchase.

An example of what I mean is that there should be a program created whereby the government buys back existing semi-trucks currently on the road at a 30% increase over market value. This in turn will make the financial impact of trading in the old trucks for the newer, more expensive super trucks a much smoother proposition, especially for the smaller trucking companies which have very limited resources. They should also change some tax rules, at least for the first decade of the new super trucks release upon the market, whereby the cost of the trucks can be written off by 125% over the actual cost, and without having to lease them. Normally—I am not a tax expert—only leases can be written off by businesses, not car or truck payments. If this were to be changed, and then increased by a significant margin, between the increased trade in value and the massive tax write offs, not to mention vastly improved fuel economy and reduced maintenance costs, I do believe that this would be perfectly doable.

It could be a real win-win proposition all across the board. Lower emissions, higher profits for trucking companies, reduced shipping costs, state-of-the-art safety features which can help reduce the number of accidents, and decreased energy dependency upon various nations who are clearly not our friends. And the icing on the cake: Less money for terrorist assholes to plan and finance their next attack against civilians.

One of the biggest reasons why many conservatives, and business oriented individuals in general are often so incredibly hostile towards any new environmental regulations doesn’t stem from their hating Bambi, or wanting the water in the nearest lake by their home to be contaminated. But rather due to a far simpler reason: the government bureaucrats propose new regulations, and then leave it up to the business owners to somehow meet them within a fairly narrow time frame. The increased costs and complications are purely a problem for the business owner, and I have talked to enough self-employed individuals to know that this isn’t a bunch of b.s. either.

The big mistake that the liberals are constantly making is that they are pitting environmentalists against businessmen and entrepreneurs. This is folly and only serves to work against whatever it is that they are trying to accomplish. One of the people whom I talked to brought up how either they will have to sell one of their existing trucks, a truck that they paid more than $70k for, or they will have to spend a whole bunch of money in making modifications to it in order to be compliant with the new regulations (I actually talk to a wide variety of real people in real life who work in many different industries. You liberal elites would be blown away about just how much you can actually learn by doing this #Pricks.)

And all of this burden is wholly upon the hardworking, self-employed people who help to power our economy and take the personal risks which are required for capitalism to be successful. We should help these people to succeed and make any government mandated changes as easy and beneficial as is possible.

But we’re not doing that…