Less Is Still Too Much
President Trump says he want to “go back, probably, to a 2020 standard” as regards federal mandatory miles-per-gallon edicts – the latter being the right word because it’s the honest word.
A “standard” is an objective value of some kind, used to evaluate whether a given thing rises to that standard. Federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) “standards,” on the other hand, are nothing more than the federal government decreeing that all new vehicles must average an arbitrarily laid down minimum miles-per-gallon. Those that do not average say 35 miles per gallon – the standard in force in 2020 – are considered “noncompliant” and their manufacturer is punished for this via fines that are imposed for offering such “noncompliant” cars for sale.
Note the offering part.
It often – it almost always – passes without comment that no one is forced to buy a vehicle that does not average 35 MPG. People are free not to. But they aren’t free to buy a vehicle that averages less than 35 MPG in that it’s not “free” when you’re made to pay more for something. Sure, you can buy a new car with a six cylinder engine. But you probably can’t afford to – because CAFE fines have made six-cylinder-powered cars luxury-priced cars and most of them no longer come standard with sixes anymore, either.
The fundamental discussion about whether the federal government has any legitimate business decreeing how many miles-per-gallon new vehicles must deliver is the one that needs to happen.
Trump’s comment to John Elkann, the new chairman of Stellantis, about “going back, probably, to a 2020 standard” is of a piece with the promises of Republicans to “mend” – but not end – Social Security and to “repeal and replace” Obamacare. With – of course – a Republic version of Obamacare. Statism always advances. Its “retreats” – when they occur – are merely slower advances.
Trump was correct when he told Elkann that the federal fuel economy fatwas – which have been framed as being as much about “emissions” (of the dread gas carbon dioxide) as about gas mileage – don’t “mean a damn bit of difference for the environment” but wrong when he added that they “make it impossible for people build cars.”
Not so.
CAFE just makes it hard to sell vehicles that are not devices – i.e., electric or partially electric vehicles – and engines that are larger than small fours. They make it extremely expensive to offer for sale large vehicles with large engines. There are plenty of medium-small look-alike crossovers with one-point-something (maybe two-point-o) liter engines available. These are the ones that are “compliant” with the 2020 standards – and these are the ones we’ll continue to get if Trump “goes back” to the 2020 standards.
Trump himself understands this. “We’re going to be bringing it back to a standard that is a very good environmental standard, but it makes it possible to build a car,” he said.
So there you go.
And note the part about the “very good environmental standard.” It suggests Trump agrees that there ought to be “standards” – just more reasonable ones (according to his standard).
We are supposed to be grateful that Trump is opposed to the near-doubling of the 2020 standard – to about 50 miles-per-gallon – that was decreed by the Scranton Sniffer. This “standard” would have effectively forced the manufacturers to make almost nothing other than electric and partially electric cars – because those are the only kinds of vehicles that can be made to average 50 MPG. It would still be legal to sell vehicles with engines – even V8s – but they would become so expensive (as a result of CAFE fines) as to be available only to the small handful of people in a position to be able to afford them.
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