All Hail the Internal Combustion Engine!
The freedom it provides; the spin-off industries it creates are indispensable. I should know.
Al Gore was fond of saying he invented the internet and Joe Biden claimed we’d have no railroads if it weren’t for government. Neither is true, of course. Politicians don’t make anything without first taking what would have been produced.1
They didn’t invent the internal combustion engine, either—though they’re sure trying to kill it. Naturally, the ramifications of doing so seem lost on a generation or two who’ve drunk the green kool-aid. They’d better be careful what they wish for because once the benefits of the open road are taken, they won’t be coming back with electric vehicles (EVs) or anything else.
America’s love affair with the gas-powered automobile is no different than any other aspect of what it means to be free. The ‘right to travel’ is even enshrined in our Constitution.2 A ‘privilege’ that was made far more economical, enjoyable and safe with the biggest of V-8 gas-guzzlers.
Indeed, the internal combustion engine transformed American life.
That apparently matters little to those who seek to put the genie back in the bottle. Get out of the suburbs and off the highway, these ‘new urbanists’ demand as they insist on forcing commuters into ‘high density’ housing next to heavily subsidized light rail stations.
How’s it all working out?
The Twin Cities’ $2.7 billion 14.5 mile Green Line-its latest incarnation in trying to be New York—is already $700 million over budget and four years behind schedule.3 But hey, give credit where credit is due. Riding public transit in Minneapolis is now just as dangerous as in the Big Apple.4