Government regulations began pushing car companies down the path of inefficiency with the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1967. Cleaning the air was a legitimate goal but the way Detroit went about complying was not. First they installed air pumps to force complete combustion of exhaust gases IN THE EXHAUST, not in the engine where power could be produced. To make this work reliably they had to richen the fuel mixture to ensure that there was enough unburned gasoline in the exhaust to burn with the air introduced by the air pump.

Am I the only one who sees problems with this approach? To lower exhaust emissions reliably over the average 100,000-mile life expectancy of a car, the companies deliberately used more gas, hurting gas mileage. What did they care, right? Gas was 35 cents per gallon. But the companies were already on a slippery slope.

In 1972 the companies were forced to reduce compression ratios to accommodate unleaded fuel. Again the reason was laudable but the reaction was not. The lower-compression engines were less efficient, so to get performance back you had to buy a bigger engine — paying the same amount per pound but buying more pounds. Detroit liked that.

Catalytic converters came along in 1975, and again required richening the fuel-air mixture for proper operation over the 100,000-mile vehicle life.

I’m not arguing here against environmental regulations but against the way they are frequently applied. This happens in other fields, too. Your cardiologist will recommend barbequing to reduce fat while your oncologist prefers frying to reduce carcinogen exposure. Either way you are still going to die.