New Vehicle Standards Mean High Priced and Unsafe Cars Americans Don’t Want

Posted September 15th, 2009 at 5.11pm in Energy and Environment.

Take good care of your current car. Given what the proposed Environmental Protection Agency/Department of Transportation regulations are going to do to new vehicles, you may want to hang on to it for as long as possible.

Pursuant to federal law as well as a 2007 Supreme Court case, these two agencies have proposed a sharp increase in vehicle fuel economy. The proposal requires a 5 percent annual increase in fuel economy starting with the 2012 model year, reaching 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. Note that this would be the vehicle fleet average, a figure that only a handful of models now meet.

Technological improvements can and have led to annual improvements in vehicle efficiency without sacrificing size, performance, safety, or affordability. But past Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards pushed too far. This has raised sticker prices, but the real cost comes from the fact that the standards necessitated a downsizing of cars that has adversely affected safety. According to a 2002 National Research Council study, the highway death may have been increased by 2,000 annually thanks to these standards.

This new round of regulations is the most aggressive ever, forcing vehicle mileage increases very quickly. It may well prove to be a backlash in the making in the years ahead, as new car buyers learn that the vehicles they want at the prices they are willing to pay are no longer available, thanks to Uncle Sam. And the required downsizing could further add to the government-caused highway death toll from too-small vehicles.

Author: Ben Lieberman
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5 Comments

September 15, 2009 Bobbie Jay writes:

GET GOVERNMENT OUT!
…they’ll have us killed one way or another…

September 16, 2009 Timothy, NY writes:

No, It does not. That is propaganda

September 16, 2009 Hal Horvath (findingourdream.blogspot.com) writes:

This is somewhat of a can’t-do idea.

Americans makers can’t accomplish safe, fuel-efficient autos.

I think this idea is entirely wrong.

I have friends who are engineers, and I can tell you the idea of can’t-do is just uninformed and wrong.

September 16, 2009 Chris (christopherrenner.blogspot.com) writes:

Hal Horvath: “Americans makers can’t accomplish safe, fuel-efficient autos. I think this idea is entirely wrong.”

Straw man - no one’s ever said that they can’t. The right question is “what will it cost them to do so?” Either they spend more engineering time on the vehicle, and increase the price as a result(which results in fewer new vehicles being purchased and more people driving their older, less safe current vehicles), or they prioritize getting a 5-star crash test rating at the expense of safety in accidents that the government doesn’t test for.

Bottom line - government mandates for vehicle design have never been the cause of increased safety or fuel economy.

September 18, 2009 EPA to Impose Global Warming Regulations: Will Congress Intervene? | Old People News writes:

[...] The Environmental Protection Agency issued a proposed endangerment finding in April, saying that global warming and climate change pose a serious threat to public health and safety and thus almost anything that emits carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases could be regulated under the Clean Air Act. The agency is already targeting the ailing auto industry. New regulations are proposing that the fleet average must reach 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, which will increase the price and decrease the safety of the vehicle. [...]

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