WASHINGTON’S NEW WAR OVER FUEL ECONOMY
By Cammie (the SANE, CHASTE, AND SOBER LIFTER SISTER)
(I’m taking the high road by ignoring Hydra’s cheap shots from yesterday. There’s more important things to discuss. Such as what Speedzzter would have called another “attack on our automotive liberty.”)
Apparently none of our elected officials or the overpaid executives in the boardrooms of the major auto makers trust in the free-market. Instead they want big government to tell us what we can drive with “draconian” fuel economy regulations, such as the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (C.A.F.E.) standards and harsh limits on “carbon emissions” (that evil stuff that all of us exhale).
President Obama, having trashed the U.S. health care system and vandalized what's left of our financial sector, now wants to move on to wrecking our national energy policy on the false altar of "global warming." Not content with the awful burden of 35 m.p.g. C.A.F.E. in 2016, the OEMs and the freedom-hating pols are gearing up for another round of telling us what we can drive and how we can fuel it.
Here’s a quick and dirty summary of what the free market-haters propose (based on a report from the “inside Congress” reporting of “The Hill” (given what fecal matter usually comes out of Washington D.C. these days, perhaps it should be renamed “The DUNG Hill”)
1. THE DETROIT APPROACH: Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) reportedly have been asked by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers to push for a low-carbon requirement for fuels. This, of course, would drive up the price of automotive fuels and is an unfunded mandate on the oil companies, instead of more fuel efficiency requirements on the automakers.
Stabenow and Levin have also been asked to "codify federal authority to enact fuel efficiency standards beyond the existing authority that runs out in 2017" (READ: More rounds of market-distorting C.A.F.E. standards; more peanut-sized, low-performance cars) and to provide federal handouts to car makers for “advanced vehicle technologies” that the marketplace doesn’t support (if drivers wanted them, they wouldn't require any government subsidies).
2. THE ANTI-DETROIT COUNTER-ATTACK: The Consumer Energy Alliance — which includes the five biggest U.S. oil companies, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, major airlines represented by the Air Transport Association and manufacturing and other big energy users – argues that imposing carbon restrictions on the industry is "too much" on top of current unfunded renewable fuel mandates. They’re going to spend a million dollars to sway public opinion against Detroit's “low-carbon” fuel plan.
3. THE SMASHMOUTH C.A.F.E. APPROACH: Liberal Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) [all worthless, liberty-grabbing chumps that should be shown the door ASAP] want to force the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation to use “existing authority” to jack up automotive fuel economy standards between 6 to 7 miles per gallon annually from 2017 to 2030.
By Cammie (the SANE, CHASTE, AND SOBER LIFTER SISTER)
(I’m taking the high road by ignoring Hydra’s cheap shots from yesterday. There’s more important things to discuss. Such as what Speedzzter would have called another “attack on our automotive liberty.”)
Apparently none of our elected officials or the overpaid executives in the boardrooms of the major auto makers trust in the free-market. Instead they want big government to tell us what we can drive with “draconian” fuel economy regulations, such as the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (C.A.F.E.) standards and harsh limits on “carbon emissions” (that evil stuff that all of us exhale).
President Obama, having trashed the U.S. health care system and vandalized what's left of our financial sector, now wants to move on to wrecking our national energy policy on the false altar of "global warming." Not content with the awful burden of 35 m.p.g. C.A.F.E. in 2016, the OEMs and the freedom-hating pols are gearing up for another round of telling us what we can drive and how we can fuel it.
Here’s a quick and dirty summary of what the free market-haters propose (based on a report from the “inside Congress” reporting of “The Hill” (given what fecal matter usually comes out of Washington D.C. these days, perhaps it should be renamed “The DUNG Hill”)
1. THE DETROIT APPROACH: Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) reportedly have been asked by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers to push for a low-carbon requirement for fuels. This, of course, would drive up the price of automotive fuels and is an unfunded mandate on the oil companies, instead of more fuel efficiency requirements on the automakers.
Stabenow and Levin have also been asked to "codify federal authority to enact fuel efficiency standards beyond the existing authority that runs out in 2017" (READ: More rounds of market-distorting C.A.F.E. standards; more peanut-sized, low-performance cars) and to provide federal handouts to car makers for “advanced vehicle technologies” that the marketplace doesn’t support (if drivers wanted them, they wouldn't require any government subsidies).
2. THE ANTI-DETROIT COUNTER-ATTACK: The Consumer Energy Alliance — which includes the five biggest U.S. oil companies, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, major airlines represented by the Air Transport Association and manufacturing and other big energy users – argues that imposing carbon restrictions on the industry is "too much" on top of current unfunded renewable fuel mandates. They’re going to spend a million dollars to sway public opinion against Detroit's “low-carbon” fuel plan.
3. THE SMASHMOUTH C.A.F.E. APPROACH: Liberal Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) [all worthless, liberty-grabbing chumps that should be shown the door ASAP] want to force the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation to use “existing authority” to jack up automotive fuel economy standards between 6 to 7 miles per gallon annually from 2017 to 2030.
(Enter the "Shelby GT 105," and "Corvette Z03" . . . each FWD micro-machines, powered by 1000cc 3-cylinder electric hybrid drivetrains . . . Yawn, Zzzzzz)
They say it will maximize “oil savings and greenhouse gas emission reductions.” I say it will destroy thousands of lives lost in highway crashes and demolish what little is left of automotive free choice in America. Sports cars and muscle cars as we know them would be legislated out of existence. An endless future of deadly, low-performance, boring micro-mini wheezeboxes would be assured.
4. THE REPUBLICAN-IN-NAME-ONLY C.A.F.E. APPROACH: RINO Sens. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) [three more worthless chumps that should be turned out of office, PRONTO] want more 4 percent annual increases in fuel economy standards and new fuel economy requirements standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks starting in 2017.
All of these “options” are HORRIBLE for those of us who value unfettered high-performance motoring. Whatever happened to “let the market decide?” Whatever happened to freedom in America? What a mess!
4. THE REPUBLICAN-IN-NAME-ONLY C.A.F.E. APPROACH: RINO Sens. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) [three more worthless chumps that should be turned out of office, PRONTO] want more 4 percent annual increases in fuel economy standards and new fuel economy requirements standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks starting in 2017.
All of these “options” are HORRIBLE for those of us who value unfettered high-performance motoring. Whatever happened to “let the market decide?” Whatever happened to freedom in America? What a mess!
Labels: AAM, Automotive Liberty, CAFE, Consumer Energy Alliance, EPA, Fuel Economy, greenhouse gasses
posted by Editor at 14:09
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