Say, I’m wondering when the LA Times will stop using fossil fuels to gather and distribute the news
Rolling back fuel economy standards could mean bigger cars — and less progress on climate change
Gas prices have been so low in recent years that more Americans are choosing to buy bigger vehicles, a trend that has stymied efforts to cut auto emissions.
One thing reining in consumer appetite for trucks and SUVs has been tough fuel economy standards adopted several years ago by California and the Obama administration. Those rules are forcing automakers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and put cleaner, more efficient gas, hybrid and electric vehicles in showrooms, whether customers want them or not.
Whoops. There’s an unintentional slip of the Progressive (nice fascist) tongue.
But this week, the Trump administration declared that those standards are too onerous for the auto industry and should be weakened — a move that would undermine the single biggest action the federal government has taken to slow climate change while threatening California’s ability to adopt its own, stricter rules for tailpipe emissions.
Negotiations between the federal and California officials are ongoing. But if nationwide gas-mileage standards are indeed rolled back, the country could lose an important bulwark in keeping the popularity of gas-guzzling vehicles from driving emissions up again.
In other words, the Progressives are upset that Other People might be given a choice. Seriously, is a newspaper residing in an area that uses an incredible amount of fossil fuels, what with all the regular cars, limos, air flights, heck, how much does Hollywood use, the best platform for complaining about Other People using fossil fuels?
Rules to force emissions reductions are crucial for the transportation sector because it’s the biggest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The industry is also more reliant on technology-forcing regulations to spur pollution reductions, according to experts. Unlike the energy sector, where economics are shifting power plants away from coal to lower-polluting natural gas, when it comes to cars and trucks, gas prices and consumer preferences are pushing in the opposite direction, toward higher-polluting vehicles.
“That means a strong regulatory effort is necessary to really push us, ultimately, toward zero-emission vehicles,†Carlson said.
In other words part II, screw your choice as a consumer. You will Comply with your political masters. Who, yes, here it comes, refuse to voluntarily make changes in their own lives. On minute they’re saying you have to be forced to drive a tiny electric car which doesn’t go very far, in the next they’re jumping in a gas guzzling limo for a trip to an airport to snag a trip on a fossil fueled private jet.
This is another scam run by those know-it-alls who have jobs in the government. The CAFE standards did nothing to create more fuel efficient cars. They simply added a financial penalty to the cars from whole companies that did not meet the fleet standards. Eliminating the standard means that consumers will still buy the same cars they want that meet their needs (space, towing, seats, comfort, or efficiency), but they won’t be financially penalized for their choice. It was never about fuel efficiency or encouraging it. It was about gouging the car companies for taxes.