DALLAS, Texas—Did you notice how President Obama misinformed, and even misled, the country about certain aspects of his health care law—which imposed significant burdens on millions of Americans?
Well, ditto for his mandate requiring cars, light trucks and SUVs to meet a 54.5 miles per gallon (mpg) standard by 2025.
In an effort to reduce oil dependency, Congress passed the first Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) mandate in 1975, when oil was scarce and gas lines were long. Neither is true anymore.
And yet the Obama Administration has decided, without approval from Congress—yet again—to dramatically increase the CAFE mandate, doubling 2010’s 27.5 mpg standard to 54.5 mpg in a mere 10 years.
The president will claim that the nation’s top automakers endorsed the increase in 2011. But what’s an automaker called to the White House supposed to say when the president, whose administration can make life very difficult for those who don’t toe the White House line, demands concessions at the point of a gas pump?
The Obama Administration is touting the mandate’s environmental benefits and claims that consumers will save thousands of dollars by driving more fuel-efficient cars. But like Obamacare, there’s more to the story.
First, the increase will drive up the cost of cars. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concedes that the mandate will increase the price of a new car by about $2,000 by 2025.
And don’t be surprised if the government is underestimating that cost increase, as it usually does.
Saving money has never cost so much!
The EPA boasts consumers will get that “investment” back within four years because they will spend less on gasoline. However, that prediction was based on about $3.50 per gallon, before the price of oil tanked.
And what if millions of Americans can’t afford the higher price? At least consumers have a vibrant used car market to fall back on, but how would that shift affect the high-paying jobs at the auto manufacturers?
But that’s not all; auto repairs will cost more. Carmakers are looking for lighter-weight metals as one way to squeeze more miles out of a gallon. But those metals could be more costly to repair.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates consumers will be spending an extra $12 billion to $15 billion in repairs over the lifespan of the newer cars because of the EPA’s new CAFE standards.
Saving money has never cost so much!
And, of course, there is the biggest consumer cost: your life. As cars and trucks become smaller and lighter to meet the government’s mandates, they also become less safe—which is one reason why so many families with children like to drive large, heavy SUVs, as an added protection in case of a crash.
Which leads to the real problem with Obama’s CAFE mandate: Consumers don’t want what he’s selling. The Wall Street Journal reports that 2.5 million cars have been sold through April of this year as compared to 4.8 million mostly larger and heavier trucks and SUVs.
Mr. Obama had optimistically, and wrongly, predicted there would be 1 million electric vehicles on the road by this year. And yet out of 1.5 million new vehicles sold last January, CNBC notes that GM sold only 542 of its Chevy Volts, while Nissan sold only 1,070 of it’s all-electric LEAF.
We’ve seen this movie before and we know it ends: Obama claims he has a plan that will be better for you and the country while saving you money.
Once imposed he claims success while average Americans struggle to make ends meet under his new rules that most never wanted—especially in this new era of cheap gas.
Or as the President himself might say: “If you like your car or truck, you can keep it—as long as it meets my expectations rather than yours.”
Merrill Matthews is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation. He holds a PhD in the Humanities from the University of Texas. Readers may write him at IPI, Suite 820, 1320 Greenway Drive, Irving, TX, 75038.
