Car Wars, Part III

In my previous posts regarding the Obama administration’s new automotive fuel economy standards, I have intimated why I do not think mandating a huge increase in mileage is a workable idea. In this post I want to counter one of the arguments that has been raised in favor of the idea.

I’m talking about the “national standard” argument. Basically, this argument goes that it is better that we now have a new federal standard, as opposed to a “patchwork” of different fuel efficiency standards in various areas of the country. With a single standard, manufacturers can focus all of their engineering efforts on meeting the Federal goals, rather than trying to develop different cars for different states.

This argument is crap. It’s hogwash. No, it’s hogwash on steroids.

A little history is in order. A few years back, California announced that in the interest of controlling pollution from automobiles, the state was going to come out with a mileage standard for cars sold in California. This mileage standard was considerably in excess of Federal standards at the time.

The car companies sued to halt this action, arguing that mileage standards were the business of the Federal government. The Bush administration agreed with them. What the car companies really objected to was that the new California mileage rules would force them to develop cars that few people wanted to buy, and abandon vehicles that people did want to buy. Since the California market is so large, you can’t afford not participate in it. A classic Catch 22: they don’t want to meet the California standard, but they can’t afford to give up the California market.

But the car companies could have chosen to embrace the California standards. And the mix of cars developed for the strictest mileage standards in the country would meet the requirements of every other region as well.

Fast forward to the present day. The Obama administration has preempted the California attempt to impose higher fuel economy. How did they do it? By adopting the California standard!

Now, call me crazy, but I don’t think there is much preemption in capitulation.

The Obama administration has basically turned over control of the fortunes of a large, strategically important industry to the pollution control bureaucrats of a single state.

It may be a new Federal standard, but these actions are a betrayal of the Federal system.