The Trump administration openly threatened one of the cornerstones of California’s environmental protections Monday, saying that it may revoke the state’s ability under the Clean Air Act to impose stricter standards than the federal government sets for vehicle emissions.
The announcement came as the administration confirmed it is tearing up landmark fuel economy rules that formed a key part of the effort by the Obama administration and California officials to combat global warming — and as the Justice Department sued to block a state law that limits the federal government’s ability to sell any of the 46 million acres it controls in California. […]
“Cooperative federalism doesn’t mean that one state can dictate standards for the rest of the country,” Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt said in a statement, which added that California’s authority to set its own emissions standards was “being reexamined.”
Maybe straight up good engineering will deliver better results in fuel economy than the hamfisted regulations could ever mandate. The auto manufacturers can engineer the desired fuel economy for the average commuter as there is a natural market to fill.
What auto ad doesn’t reference fuel economy these days?
Prosit!
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group ‘True North’
At some point, you have to accept that the regulations you have put in place are doing a good enough job, and leave it at that. At this point, it costs a lot of money for very tiny gains. Some of things being added to our vehicles are strictly to find fractions of a percent in overall fuel economy. The reduced amp draw from LED lights can generate a fuel savings that appears huge when measured out over a million cars and a billion miles. However, you can never recoup the cost of an $1100 headlamp in the fuel you save, no matter how long you own that rig.
By continually tightening the regulatory noose, it may still be feasible for the regulated entity to meet the requirements, but you easily reach a point where the customer derives no benefit from the new regulations. How much safer and cleaner can we effectively make the cars and trucks we drive? A simple moratorium on new regs will not result in any more highway deaths, and the air will not be measurably less clean either a year or a decade or a generation from now.
The current regulations are extremely onerous. Which is why every diesel manufacturer on the planet has built cheat devices. VW, Cummins, Cat, Perkins, Mac, … Every. Single. One.
When everyone in the market comes up with the same solution, you have a regulation problem.
Government needs to generate more regulations every day to justify their continued existence. Therefore, At some point, you have to accept that the regulations you have put in place are doing a good enough job that point can never be reached.
If this means that we will once again be able to buy gas cans that put more gas in the tank than on the floor, I for one will be a very happy camper.
Good news! Hopefully Pruitt follows through.
I doubt they have ever calculated the energy used to make some of the parts that allow a lighter vehicle compared to the marginal fuel savings during the life of the vehicle. If you need to heat a B pillar to the martensitic range (900C) before you form it to make it strong enough to pass crash test and save 1/2 in weight, how much fuel savings is 1/2 lb?
Obama’s EPA fuel standards along with CA’s even more stringent fleet mpg requirements are no less than an attempt to MANDATE electric cars … ONLY. That’s the only viable option to achieve those standards. Who killed the electric car? Hopefully … MY President killed that crap. YOU want to drive an electric golf cart? Enjoy tooling around your gated retirement community … but leave me alone. My ICE is clean-enough. Now go away!
When they regulated cars to strict mileage standards everyone started buying trucks and vans. You don’t see many cars in backwoods Alberta. My 6 banger 1966 Ford pickup got 20 miles to the big gallon. I’m not sure that has ever improved. I suspect we are doing a lot of fooling ourselves.
Well … we all know the EPA-tested and approved mpg figures are rubbish and bear no resemblance to REAL WORLD driving … esp. for Hybrid and electric autos. Those numbers are SERIOUSLY biased to make those autos “look” to be more efficient than they actually are.
Interesting. Wasn’t it the same Chicago Tribune that ventured to California to convince a California judge to unseal the divorce records of Jack Ryan and Jeri Ryan (yes, THAT Jeri Ryan of Star Trek fame)?
Wasn’t Jack Ryan, a Republican, running at the time for the same US Senate as one Barack Hussein Obama II?
Jack Ryan dropped out of the race because of what that California judge did and I’ll give you one guess as to who eventually won the race.
California has far, far too much influence on American life.
This is great news for every person in North America because California has always set the trend for new regs.
Whatever came out of California was eventually adopted across an industry and often to great detriment.
Take for example the law mandating the use of DEF in heavy diesel engines. In our cold Canadian climate the urea based product has been a disaster. Caterpillar simply quit supplying diesel engines for semi-trucks because their engineers knew it would be trouble and now it has been discovered that the ‘burn’ associated with that technology is harming the vegetation adjacent to the highways, not to mention a cause of unreliable service and damaging to the engine components as well plus fuel economy has decreased with that technology.
These are the kind of headlines I expected from Day One president Trump.
So finally his administration is moving in on some harder targets.
I see the bureau is trying to destroy Pruit,claiming he spends too much and has “conflicts of interest”
Just imagine if we had legislation similar to fuel economy but applied to politicians…
For 2018 we mandate that Senators shall steal 50% less than 2016.
For 2019 we mandate that this theft shall drop by 75%…of 2018 levels.
Why not? these same pollies believe private business can do it..
Or even better apply this illogic to government spending.
THAT … would clean up our environment