Sometimes, you can only shake your head

Maybe it is the weather or the late summer doldrums, but this has got to be one of the silliest political protest gestures I’ve come across. Some truck owners in the United States are voicing their displeasure at President Obama and environmentalists by engaging in Rolling Coal. Haven’t heard of it? I’m not too surprised. Men and women who want to stick it to the President, environmentalists, Liberals and anyone driving a Prius can, for as little as US$500, modify their diesel trucks so that the engines can be tricked to burn more fuel. The resulting black and sooty smoke then billows out of modified smokestacks or exhausts to blacken the air around the politically offending vehicle or person.

There is a growing number of videos on YouTube of drivers of these modified trucks blowing smoke towards electric vehicles, cyclists, EPA employees and just about anyone identified as Liberal or just holding an opinion different from their own.

As a political protest, this is about as dumb as they come. Even if you agree with the sentiments, I don’t believe you are actually winning any converts by blowing black smoke. In all the videos, you get the feeling that while the folks may say they are protesting government regulation, subsidies to electric vehicle owners or EPA regulations, what they really are engaging in is a new way of being jerks, just with a political patina added.

Worse, they are certainly not helping their vehicle engines with these stunts. By modifying engines to produce great, billowing amounts of black smoke, you are doing two things. Burning more fuel simply means you are burning more money. With the cost of diesel fuel near the cost of gasoline, the idea that you want to deliberately decrease your fuel efficiency seems . . . well, just dumb. If this is your idea of political protest, why not simplify things and throw money out your window while driving down the road? It seems a lot more efficient than modifying your engine and smokestacks.

Then there is the soot that is produced. It may seem funny to blow the stuff onto someone’s electric vehicle or into the faces of cyclists as the chortling by the truck drivers on the videos suggests. There is just one problem. That soot also gets into your diesel engine. Roll Coal enough times and you will damage your engine. So once more, I have to ask is why someone thinks that courting potentially expensive engine repairs is a great form of political protest?

Before some Canadians take up this idea, we at SSGM have always advocated proper vehicle maintenance so we can’t condone actions that would deliberately cause damage to one’s vehicle or harm to others.

And it is illegal in the province as well.