No, it's still about supply and demand
Mr. Neider's argument is that if it's not fuel economy, then it MUST be the recession. That's poor science, because he hasn't ruled out other factors.
For example, Mr. Neider overlooks the record price of gasoline on driving behavior. The peak gas price was reached in July, 2008, just before the global panic hit. While there was a big dip just afterwards, it's been high by historical standards since. The price is a factor of global supply and demand, and the recession has amounted only to a minor dip of the demand curve.
You see this in the first graph. Yes, there was a demand dip starting with the recession in late 2007. But the recession ended in June, 2009 and the economy has been growing ever since. Demand did rise slightly in 2009, but it's still been below 2005 levels until now. How does Mr. Neider explain that with his recession hypothesis?
As a final note, if you turn Mr. Neider's argument around, he's saying there's not much to be gained by the Obama administration's new fuel economy standards. So why should we do them, especially when they will add thousands of dollars to the price of a new car?
