Obama’s CAFE: Efficiency over Safety

In automobile design, there is a trade-off between efficiency, horsepower and mass (safety) that manufacturers must deal with in coming up with their new car designs each year. The Obama Administration, however, has seized decision-making from auto manufacturers and their consumers when it chose to increase the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, about twice its current level. The problem with this huge increase in CAFE is that we can only go so far in achieving this increase without affecting driver and passenger safety due to weight reductions.