Washington’s press corps this afternoon dutifully parroted the White House announcement that by 2025, cars must get 54.5 mpg. And we’ll put humans on Neptune.
The EPA said the new 900-page regulation will require a 5 percent gain in fuel efficiency per year, will save consumers $1.7 trillion at the pump, and will provide “net societal benefits of $420 billion,” whatever that means. These are carnival-barker numbers. “Drink our serum and you’ll be a foot taller!”
But for harder numbers, how are the automakers doing on the more immediate EPA mandate of 35.5 mpg by 2015? They’re not even close.
Take, for example, the best-selling car in America: the brand-new, totally redesigned, state-of-the-art, four-cylinder, base model 2012 Toyota Camry (255,000 units sold far this year) that will still be Toyota’s standard-bearer three years from now. Its fuel economy is just 28 mpg. That’s the average American car.
Indeed, 15 years ago, the Camry got 23 mpg, meaning that its fuel economy has improved at 1.5 percent each year. Now the high priests of the EPA are requiring that it improve 5 percent per year over the next 15 years.
And they’ll mandate magic wands to get us there.
They've marginalized science, they've marginalized economics they've even marginalized addition, subtraction' multiplication and division forget what they've done to the rule of law and the constitution. When do you suppose they will get the idea that there's no one listening to them anymore?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf ObamaCare is upheld how about a mandate requiring purchasing the Volt.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMaybe they can mandate shorter miles (3000 feet? 2500 feet?). That way you can go more miles on the same amount of gas.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOnce the new Administration is in place in Jan. 2013 this will be stopped. The car companies know this and are just playing along.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOnce the elections are over next year this will all be changed. The car companies know this and are just playing the obediant dog until then.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMore magic from the Democrats. They want to control us by bankrupting the citizens and making them more dependent upon the government. Since the cost of buying these fantasy gas powered cars will be out of sight due to the yet to be discovered/invented technology, you will only have those electric toys available. And remember, Obummer promised that electric bills will skyrocket.
Conspiracy? Absolutely!!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere are many ways to get to the MPG mandate. Probably the most effective method, as-of-yet unused, will be the re-definition of MPG. If you replace the current numbers with the "highway" numbers most cars quote, you're well on your way. Then again, I'm not sure the EPA has to stick to the persnickety notions of "miles" and "gallon". Common usage (people say "a mile up the road" and "a couple of gallons") might well prove that these measures are, in fact, larger than currently define. And who says the vehicle being measured must be travelling on level ground? Think about it! Often, perhaps more often than not, you're going downhill!
They'll make it somehow.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm stunned! I'm really stunned! This is not the American way. American achievements happened not by government using 'the big stick'. How can a country that gave the world Steve Jobs, have in charge of its EPA an individual that seems to have no understanding of commercial reality?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis problem can easily be solved by simply shortening the mile. If your car gets 30 mpg and you want it to get 35 mpg, simply shorten the mile to 30/35 of a mile to meet your goal and to establish a new mile. When you want to increase your mileage from 35 mpg to 95 mpg, just shorten your new mile to 35/95 of a mile. This will meet and exceed all EPA goals, protect the environment, and extend the supply of fossil fuels into the infinite future. It's so simple, why haven't we done this before?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere are two possibilities, and not much middle ground.
1) It will be excused/ignored/remediated or otherwise make no difference.
2) It will be used as a means to micromanage the entire auto industry: "Well, you are violating the law, but perhaps we can overlook it just this once if you do exactly what we tell you ..."
I suspect (2) might be the better outcome, since abruptly overreaching powers usually results in a political smackdown, while in (1) people will falsely believe it's mostly harmless.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseStill want a car that gets 1 mpg and goes from 0-60 in 1 second. F the EPA, we'll drill for more.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf only they had bothered to write an 1800-page regulation. It would have mandated a 10% annual efficiency gain thus saving us $3.4 trillion while nearly balancing the budget with $840 billion in societal benefits the government will no longer have to pay for. Who knew the EPA could solve all of our problems for all time, just by doing a self-study marketing their massive regulation?
Not so sure those two possibilibites are mutually exclusive, @JamesD.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI keep telling 'em. Put larger diameter tires on the rear wheels so your car is almost always going downhill. That'll certainly improve your gas mileage.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusedang, i wish I thought of that? like what we would do to our old stingray bicycles!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm not an expert in this area but several areas seem to be missing from the discussion:
1) Prius gets 55 mpg EPA or maybe 44 now (some friends claim both actual mileage).
2) Effect of electric cars- If you give a small percentage of electrics a very high MPG (300 was being talked about a couple years ago) then it has a large effect on the fleet. Plug in Electric Prius MPG is coming out.
3) Look at the perverse way the fleet standards worked in the past. The high MPG cars were subsidized by the low MPG SUVs. Look for the $15K Pruis subsidized by the $60K SUV. The rules will be gamed.
Big safe cars won't be affordable for most.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe car that claimed 300mpg cheated.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThey started the car with a fully charged battery. Ran the car until the battery was drained, then ran a few more miles using the gas powered charger.
They then counted all of the miles driven vs. the amount of gasoline used.
Here's my question: Why "bail out" the auto industry only to turn around and slap them with impossible standards? Not to mention, even if they could pull off an engineering miracle and make these changes happen, the consumer more than likely will be unwilling to pick up the cost of these progressive policies, putting the auto makers in further jeopardy, driving up costs, driving down profits, costing more U.S. jobs, creating the perceived need for more bailouts, ad nauseum. Washington D.C. is not, has never been, and will never be the answer to this country's ills.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYeah, the EPA can regulate this... (jiggle)...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseConservatives needs to realize that this is the plan. Only wealthy liberal will be able to afford cars, electricity and houses, the peasants will just have to do without. It’s for the children don’t you know.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseConservatives needs to realize that this is the plan. Only wealthy liberal will be able to afford cars, electricity and houses, the peasants will just have to do without. It’s for the children don’t you know.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse