Yo-Bama’s Banana Is In Your Tailpipe
President Barack Obama has a plan, people – which is basically to take all of the things that helped bankrupt the U.S. automotive industry and put them on steroids.
And then shove them up your tailpipe.
Things like unions. And kooky environmentalists.
Yesterday, Obama announced that he wants to allow states to restrict tailpipe emissions (editor’s note: sounds kinky) while demanding that the U.S. Department of Transportation develop higher fuel-efficiency standards.
Oh, and like the obligatory swallows returning to Capistrano (or a soap opera character with an eye patch), Obama’s big media roll out included the obligatory reference to “reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil.”
Because you know something? It just wouldn’t have been the same without it.
Anyway, as much as we support cleaner things (cars, air, water, roads, strange hoo-hoo), how exactly does it make sense to impose costly new federal regulations on an industry that just got bailed out to the tune of $17 billion?
“Federal fuel economy standards are already a huge hidden burden on the industry, and the President is now proposing that (we) make that burden even heavier,” said Sam Kazman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “Congress is spending billions to bail out the auto industry, and here’s the President coming up with new ways to sink it.”
Or like we said, sticking his big banana in your tailpipe … whether you like it or not.
Oh, and watch how quickly “allowing states to restrict tailpipe emissions” turns into a massive unfunded federal mandate where Washington withholds infrastructure funding if you don’t bend over to its latest PC craze.
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Comments
By FWFIV on January 27th, 2009 at 8:41 am
He is allowing California the authority to decide emission standards for their own state. This is a state’s rights issue, not an environmental one. Aren’t conservatives always complaining about the heavyhanded nature of the federal government? In this instance he is telling the feds to get out of the way.
By StupidShouldHurtMore (SSHM) on January 27th, 2009 at 10:01 am
The on-going argument is that all of these so-called “hidden costs” kill development and innovation. Explain to me how General Motors, in the mid-to-late 1990s, developed the EV1 and the necessary supporting infrastructure to support the car in Southern California? Explain to me, since the project was such a success, it was canned? Explain to me how such a marvel of development and innovation happened (if government is so hostile and regulations are so bad)?
I have experience working in Manufacturing. Innovation isn’t driven from manufacturing – cost reductions are. If you have an industry that is looking for cost offsets rather than means and approaches to propel the business forward, you will stagnate. That is what has happened to the US Auto Makers.
The other big “/facepalm” issue is how these big three (was big four, but that’s a discussion for another time) fail to leverage their global designs. Take for example Ford. Ford finally woke up and said “we’ll use our global Ford Focus platform for all Focus products globally.” Ever looked at the European version of the Focus? OMG!! You’d see a dramatic drop in the sales of “import tuners” and a surge in sales.
Google it. Look at the current American version of the Focus. Look at the European version. Night and day difference.
- SSHM