Big 3
Posted at 8:17am on Apr. 22, 2008 It's Earth Day... I'd throw a party but that would waste a lot of electricity
By RightMichigan.com
Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.
"I think you need to give the Bush administration credit," (Environmentalist Dan) Becker said. "They got one right."
And with that you know the administration got one wrong. So very, very wrong.
Happy Earth Day everybody. Make sure you re-use your napkins, get trash in the proper receptacle, recycle everything you can and don't throw away those pop cans today. You'd better walk through the house and make sure you don't have any lights on in unoccupied rooms and make sure your kids don't use too much water brushing their teeth this morning, too. Otherwise you're just not cool. It's as simple as that.
I'm sure Dan Becker would tell you the same thing. He's pretty proud of the Bush administration today because federal regulators are expected to announce plans today to artificially raise fuel economy standards to 31.6 miles per gallon by 2011. Says the Ivory Tower:
Under the proposal, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will raise fuel economy rules to 35.7 m.p.g. for passenger cars and 28.6 m.p.g. for light trucks.
The standards for vehicles built between 2011 and 2015 are more aggressive than some observers expected, and raise the possibility that the government could require U.S. automakers to meet the 35 m.p.g. target they agreed to last year ahead of the 2020 deadline.
That requires a substantial shift in applied technology and a bigger sticker price on the car-lot. Not exactly what Michigan's biggest and chronically struggling industry needs right now. The sad part, and FREEP acknowledges the point at the conclusion of their article, is that the industry has been moving towards more fuel efficient vehicles already because of market forces. There's a growing segment of people who would rather drive a tin-can with a one-star crash test rating that gets them 800 miles per gallon than anything heavier or safer the Big 3 can offer.
So why the need for governmental interference? Why artificially manipulate the marketplace and essentially slap an extra couple thousand dollars on every new vehicle sold by 2011? Essentially because A) they can and B) Earth Day is cool. More B than A. It's just the trendy, hip, "forward-thinking" thing to do.
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