The Washington Examiner sees the command-and-control writing on the magical thinking wall:
The CAFE rule is the fleet-wide average fuel economy rating manufacturers are required by Washington to achieve. The new rule — issued in response to a 2010 Obama directive, not to specific legislation passed by Congress — would require automakers to achieve a 40.9 mpg CAFE average by 2021 and 54.5 mpg by 2025. In case you’re wondering whatever happened to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it has been supplanted in the CAFE process by the EPA. The proposed regulation was designed, according to the EPA, “to preserve consumer choice — that is, the proposed standards should not affect consumers’ opportunity to purchase the size of vehicle with the performance, utility and safety features that meets their needs.” But the reality is that consumer choice will be the first victim.
Getting from the current 35 mpg CAFE standard to 54.5 can be achieved by such expedients as making air conditioning systems work more efficiently. We have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell to anybody who thinks that’s even remotely realistic. There is one primary method of increasing fuel economy — weight reduction. That in turn means automakers will have to use much more exotic materials, including especially the petroleum-processing byproduct known as “plastic.” But using more plastic will make it much more difficult to satisfy current federal safety standards. The bottom-line will be much more expensive vehicles and dramatically fewer kinds of vehicles.
The average price of a new vehicle will go up at least $3,200, according to NHTSA, but experts outside government such as the National Automobile Dealers Association say the cost will be substantially higher. The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that there will be no vehicles costing $15,000 or less, the segment of the market that college students and low-income consumers depend upon. Altogether, an estimated seven million buyers will be forced out of the market for new cars.
[…]
[…] Annual U.S. car sales are 14-16 million units, yet over time, this rule will remove the equivalent of half a year’s worth of buyers. Will that be when the EPA takes a cue from Obamacare and issues an individual mandate that we all must buy Chevy Volts?
No. But they will probably offer the 99% a nice discount on a bullet train universal pass.
The herd is so much easier to control when their movements are tied to a very regimented schedule. Plus, think of all the highway space that’ll be cleared up for those of better stock who can actually afford cars, which should be a luxury item, not something just anyone can own and drive and use to pollute the earth.
We need to have standards. I mean, at long last, have we no social discernment?
I was under the impression that after We the People became sole owners of Government Motors that we would all be entitled to a vehicle of our choice.
Gad. Fooled again.
The VoltsWagon. Buy it or walk.
That wasn’t the choice I was looking for. *sigh*
There’s an island just off the coast of Florida that provides a very realistic look at what happens when the State makes it impossible to buy a new car…
Michael Moore’s been there, Squid. It’s a magical place with 100% literacy and free health care for all! And sandwiches with grilled pork and pickles!
Best thing about that place, Jeff, is all the vintage cars. And those cars use good ol’ American GM parts!
I don’t care for these people, at all.
Heh, I sorta figured Gasparilla would get around to it sooner or later.
does it come with a fire extinguisher?
newrouter, you are clearly a wrecker and not a team player. Always focusing on the negative is no way to Turn America Around® and make Green Energy™ a Reality©.
Chevy Vult
volts don’t go very far, which is a problem if you’d like to go someplace what’s not super close to your house
If you’re going somewhere that’s not super close to your house, you should probably be taking high-speed rail to get there.
Problem solved!
excellent point
Why are you going anywhere at all? How is Big Nanny s’posed to take care of you if you keep wandering off?
staycation all I ever wanted
So CAFE regulations, that in reality drastically reduce the types of vehicles available, are really in place to “preserve consumer choice”.
Just like in the bad old days of the USSR, where you could have any car you wanted; as long as it was a Lada or a Zil. Or if you were lucky, one of those jazzy imported Trabants…
take a volt to your next barbecue
Pity Congress doesn’t have the guts to legally define a gallon as equal to a liter for the purposes of CAFE standards.
problemo solved.
I don’t know what you guys are on about. The Volt is awesome! It’s, like, gluten-free and stuff!
Hate to o/t, but I got back in town today to find that my buddy, the incomparable baseball (!nd everything else) Rick Behenna passed away while I was gone. As a high school baseball umpire whom before I knew who he was had actually charted my tendencies (!) He was that tall coach who I could tell had played really played ball and was on to me, but also realized my love for the game and sought me out. He became my friend and I will miss him dearly.
Rick’s claim to fame, which bemused him to no end, was being the young pitcher thrown in on the deal for Len Barker in one of the most infamous trades in Atlanta Braves (Indeed all of) baseball history. He won his first ever mlb game, beating Mario Soto and hit his only homerun off of Fernando Valenzuela who he figures was about 40 at the time in 1986. I knew all of this when I first met him, which I still can’t believe didn’t creep him out.
Jeff provided a platform for Rick a couple of years ago on the travesty of justice visited upon his nephew Michael http://www.defendmichael.com. he stated his case and took on all comers. And he was grateful for the opportunity, it meant everything to him.
He had prostate cancer, then all kinds of stuff going on inside. He crawled out of the hospital to attend Becky’s funeral, then went back and never came out. I love him for that.
He was on all of the good guys side, peace buddy.
I wonder when the word mandate will be replaced by persondate.
Where is that famous Michigander, Bart Stupak, now that Obama needs him? What? Is he off on an Ambassadorship to the Vatican?
Ah, no. Fuck that. Where is Bart Stupak?
It is worth noting that “plug-in’ hybrids, like the Volt, pull juice directly off the power grid, which is over 50% coal-fired nationally.
So, by coercing us into Volts, they’re forcing us into COAL POWERED CARS!
As for high speed rail, my suggestion is to move forward with it as part of a new, “greener” NASA program.
We just build a bullet train to Mars!!!
See, I’m solutions oriented!
Bart Stupak, he is now a lobbyist with Venable LLP.
By popular demand, my tree removal, in process:
One
Two
Three
Video
3 cheers for tree removal. but will we get the stump grinding action? ;)
Look at it this way. In the re-education camps, everything will be centrally located so you will never need to drive farther than a Volt will take you! And the camps will all be interconnected by high speed rail so you have the best of both worlds! The Volt safety issues aren’t a problem either because there is standing room only in the camps.
Stump-grinding action will be tomorrow!
Mandated to come to pass by Year of Our Lord 2021. Followed by a further aesthetic improvement in 2025. Nine years and thirteen years into the future. Which means – never happen.
Nobody will have time for this crap by then. Even if O is re-elected, even if Romney is elected and the GOP establishment fulfills our worst fears — never happen.
It is of course not about global warming, or reducing dependence on Middle East oil – clear sighted people can see that. It’s about creating a well-controlled population with limited mobility that can be coralled and shunted and sent into the chute when needed.
And it will still never happen. Their own positions depend on it.
The Volt, a Trabant for the 21st Century…
I love to dance with Peg Leg Sue
She got one, I got two
I told her to save a dance for me
My boogie woogie amputee
We’re gonna hop swing and jump
I shake my hips, she shakes her stump
Yeah
Sha la la la Wee ahh oooh
Disco Disco Peg Leg Sue
Oh Suzie baby if you please
Let me give your stump a squeeze
It turns me on that empty knee
My boogie woogie amputee
Down hetta-hetta
Oh Suzie you sho ain’t got two left feet baby
Oh Suzie Oh Suzie you’re my fave
You only got one leg to shave
You got style, you got charms
Aren’t you glad you got both arms
You’re gonna use ’em tonite
Yeah.
Mandated to come to pass by Year of Our Lord 2021. Followed by a further aesthetic improvement in 2025. Nine years and thirteen years into the future. Which means – never happen.
What’s the design cycle for a new model of automobile? What’s the planning horizon for a major automotive company? Sure, the People’s Glorious General Motoring Workers Collektif is on an election cycle, but actual real companies with their own billions on the line take a longer view.
You and I can agree that these mandates are unlikely to take effect in their currently planned form, but we can’t be certain. And uncertainty, as we’ve seen over the past four years, is an economy-killer.