Update: County Commissioner Mark Sharpton

When I was young before seat belt laws existed, my mom’s arm took the place of a child car seat and airbags. My brother and I would lean and pull on the front seat while setting in the back. Our father would ask, “Why are you leaning on the back of my seat?” Our answer was always the same. “We are trying to see where we are going.” My dad always said, “Turn around and see where you have been.

“After President Obama came out this week saying the federal government is requiring higher fuel economy standards for large trucks in the future, it made me think about where we are going and that perhaps we should quit looking forward and start looking back.

Considering the quality of roads and bridges over the years, I think it is safe to say that the infrastructure built in the last 30 years will not last nearly as long as when projects were done in the past with more local control. Federal standards are now requiring more right-of-way and clear zones than we can afford. The Oklahoma Department of Transportation seems to be enforcing new rules gleefully instead of opposing burdensome requirements. What is being implemented seems to be a regulated land grab for private property. The government seems to be focusing on trains, trolleys and thievery. A simple truth is that rail systems are not a viable system for our area at this time and yet many are afraid to oppose their implementation. While governments waste millions of transportation money to devise schemes to get individuals to give up the freedom of using automobiles, they are also making requirements for improving local roads so stringent that it is not affordable to build them.

The federal government is requiring auto, small trucks and heavy trucks to have greater fuel economy in the future. The website at http://www.nhtsa.gov/fuel-economy contains an immense amount of information about the CAFE program, including rule-making actions. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE), was first enacted by Congress in 1975. The purpose of it is to reduce energy consumption by increasing the fuel economy of cars and light trucks. Recently standards have been set to increase CAFE levels rapidly over the next several years.

The byproduct of greater fuel economy is having less money to use for building and repairing roads. Every cent not spent for fuel means less to go toward roads. And yet we are being required to build roads at a higher cost while spending a greater portion of fuel tax on bikes, trains, trolleys, and pedestrian structures, all of which do not pay a tax for use. So where does this leave us? We have more rules to comply with in order to obtain road building money, and are forced by central planners to create a more diverse transportation system on the backs of auto users. Unless higher levels of government start providing more money and or lessening restrictions, it falls back to you and I to pay for what we want here on a local level. We need to return the power to the people. As Thomas Jefferson said, “My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.”