TTAC to DC: Let's Kill CAFE!
When it comes to public policy, I don't often agree with the automotive industry in general and Motown in specific. That's because the car biz is ready, willing and lobbying to suck on the federal tit whenever and wherever they can. But when it comes to federal Corporate Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations, I agree: the system is absurd. As the otherwise deeply misguided GM Car Czar Bob Lutz said, it's like trying to get people to lose weight by forcing manufacturers to sell smaller shirts. Anyway, none of the automakers or their camp followers have the balls to simply call for CAFE's abolition. Instead, they continually work to game, undermine and otherwise manipulate the system to appear to support it. You know; in principle. And now The Wall Street Journal reports that even that's in jeopardy. At a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) hearing on a new CAFE draft statement, "The auto industry said federal regulators are pushing too far, too fast in their effort to raise fuel-mileage rules [to 35mpg by 2020]. The complaints from the industry, which had previously voiced support for tougher standards, underscore how economic hardship is affecting a major policy debate.they reversing their former support by claiming hardship." It gets worse. According to Automotive News [sub], "The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers questioned whether the statement was necessary, calling on NHTSA to reserve its right to not draft a statement at all." In other words, can we please torpedo this thing in private, like always? So, anyway, I sent an email to NHTSA.
More by Robert Farago
Comments
Join the conversation
Congress is economically dumb (in a collective sense), therefore CAFE is dumb. I'm no fan of taxes. But tax the consumer end to change behavior. Set a floor of $X/gallon for wholesale gasoline. If the price goes below that, tax it up to that amount. Where the taxes go, is, unfortunately, a function of who we elect. Orian: Now now - most of our current tax dollars are being sent over seas to fund our little incursion into Iraq. That’s costing what, around $30+ million a week? At the risk taking this thread completely OT, your Iraq estimate is off by an order of magnitude+. That said, total defense spending is historically (post 1940) low GDP-wise. It's our collective middle class (sense of) entitlement - not Iraq, not Bush, not Cheney, not Blackwater contracts, not Dems or the GOP - THAT will bankrupt this country.
Kill CARB while you're at it. --chuck
CAFE is also, IMO, responsible for the awfulness of small, efficient cars in the US. Why? Because these cars exist only to make the CAFE numbers, and the big automakers (especially the US-based) treat them as just that. I also suspect part of the domestic auto industry's support of them was that CAFE penalties were a way to make imported luxury autos more expensive.