Coming soon: Individual mandate to buy Chevy Volts
The Bear on Feb 09 2012 at 8:20 am | Filed under: Energy Policy, Environmentalism, Politics
President Obama spent more than $85 billion bailing out General Motors and Chrysler three years ago. Now he claims credit for saving the industry, noting GM’s recent return to the top sales spot among automakers worldwide, Ford’s record profits (albeit achieved without federal funds), and the recent revival of Chrysler, (though Italy’s Fiat owns it). Regardless whether you supported or opposed the government bailouts, the reality is the Big Three’s assembly lines are humming again. Too bad Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency is preparing yet another killer hike in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy, only this time instead of merely inflicting massive costs on the industry and consumers, the coming regulation could very well demolish the Big Three for good.
Here’s why: The CAFE rule is the fleet-wide average fuel economy rating manufacturers are required by Washington to achieve. The new rule — issued in response to a 2010 Obama directive, not to specific legislation passed by Congress — would require automakers to achieve a 40.9 mpg CAFE average by 2021 and 54.5 mpg by 2025. In case you’re wondering whatever happened to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it has been supplanted in the CAFE process by the EPA.
One Response to “Coming soon: Individual mandate to buy Chevy Volts”
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Where does Obama think he gets the power to direct anything ? This is not a monarchy – at least not yet. He is not our sole legislative body and he obviously thinks he has this power. It is wake-up time for Obama but more importantly, it is past wake -up time for America.