Yesterday, president Obama announced emission standards which he said would raise the cost of automobiles by $1300.
While the new fuel and emission standards for cars and trucks will save billions of barrels of oil, they are expected to cost consumers an extra 1,300 US dollars per vehicle by the time the plan is complete in 2016. Mr Obama said the fuel cost savings would offset the higher price of vehicles in three years.
His remarkable comment caught my attention, because one of the primary purposes of Obama’s “cap and trade” plan is to massively raise the cost of fuel. There aren’t going to be any fuel cost savings. In fact, Mr. Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle last year that he actually intends to bankrupt coal fired power plants using cap and trade:
You know, when I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, uh, you know — Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.
Two automobile companies are already going bankrupt, so I think we should take Mr. Obama’s words seriously.
I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains tax, not any of your taxes.
WASHINGTON – Democrat Barack Obama said Sunday that if elected he will push to increase the amount of income that is taxed to provide monthly Social Security benefits.
Audacity indeed. The assumption seems to be that no one remembers what was said last week.
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If these rules stay in place, the US will look like Cuba….old cars will dominate the roads. I would not want to drive one of these light weight sardine boxes and risk my life in a crash. Time to invest in used cars.
Obama has dictatorial tendencies…he knows better than the stupid masses..us
Straight down the path to Communism we go! Set your Hybrids and Plug-Ins to full speed ahead!
These policies will cause used car prices to skyrocket, energy prices to skyrocket, and the cost of everything else to increase by some unknown (large) factor. And who exactly will that impact the most? I suspect those who have the least amount of money in the bank, those with the smaller incomes. Your average $250,000 earners won’t notice much, but those making $40,000, who are already at wit’s end and near financial ruin, are going to get burned. And I do not mean by rising global temperatures.
Complete and utter destruction of everything we know as Americans, and more forced reliance on the government to collect and redistribute. It’s very sad.
Welcome to the U.S.S.A
In politics, regret is only a bankruptcy away.
So, you think that Obama is responsible for the bankruptcy of the two automakers?
If not, why the rethorical question?
This kind of demagogy won’t take you anywhere. At least the guys at Climate Resistence know how to make adult arguments.
The Texas Constitution
Article 1 – BILL OF RIGHTS
That the general, great and essential principles of liberty and free government may be recognized and established, we declare:
Section 1 – FREEDOM AND SOVEREIGNTY OF STATE
Texas is a free and independent State, subject only to the Constitution of the United States, and the maintenance of our free institutions and the perpetuity of the Union depend upon the preservation of the right of local self-government, unimpaired to all the States.
This says it all. The current regime can only go so far. Most states have similar provisions.
having watched and listened to Obama I am of the conclusion that the American public has been listening to a ‘loudspeaker’ without a computer jack.
I would ask all to think what this jack-ass is costing us, California is a fiscal paradise, when in a decline bankrupt the nation on stupidity, a few years ago the man that wrote the Obama program ( Yugoslavia’s Milosevic ) printed a 1000000000 Dinara banknote with a value of $2.00 U.S. Milosevic is no more and now the Dinara has a value today of about 90 to the dollar, Obama is about to start printing the $10,000,000 banknote, if Russia want to win the war it only has to start selling its dollars and who will buy them?
Watch Britain’s idiot brainwashed youth
We need to make politicians listen! Save the future for our children! The universe will end unless politicians sign the Stop The Universe From Moving Act!!!
REPLY: I don’t usually allow links to facebook on WUWT, but I have edited your comment to link to the video directly. – Anthony
If the cost of gasoline goes to five or six bucks per gallon, it won’t wake many gallons saved to add up to $1300. That’s how the cost savings works! Heck, if gas goes up to $10/gallon, it would only take 130 gallons saved to add up to $1300. The higher the price goes, the more you save – everybody wins!
Excuse me for my audacity; I’m not living in US. Nonetheless, isn’t that a short way to national impoverishment? It’s worrying because wherever God is, the devil is not far behind, i.e. soon Mexico will copy US practices. Here we already can hear speeches on carbon bills, for example.
They will pass that money on to consumers
And there’s the blame game. Anyone who’s ever read a left-wing blog knows that the outcry will be directed squarely at the companies who raise their prices rather than the people who enacted cap & trade.
And I’ll feel like I’m living in the parallel universe of uneducated idiots all over again. Seems to happen more & more often these days for some reason.
Luis Dias,
The current president is only symbolic of the mindset that is responsible for the bankruptcy of the two automakers. He made the comments, so he takes the criticism here. Governments never run business and economies well. Even their “success” stories – militaries and postal services – are repleat with horror stories and failures. Free market businesses, for all their faults, at least enable people to survive and even thrive most of the time. When they fail, it often is because of government or behavior in the business that mimics government behavior.
What is certain is that mendacity rules in Washington, DC regardless of party or person.
A few thoughts from a patriot.
To say that any people are not fit for freedom, is to make poverty their choice, and to say they had rather be loaded with taxes than not. -Thomas Paine
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon. -Thomas Paine
That government is best which governs least. -Thomas Paine
I sincerely wonder if the horrifically expensive “plans” being announced weekly by our new administration represent the juxtaposition of a desire to do good with scientific ignorance and economics ignorance.
Or, are they a premeditated scam by some corrupt politicians and predatory businesses to transfer our money into their pockets?
Probably a scam. Why? Because cheap, effective solutions to the presumed AGW problem are dismissed out of hand (e.g. nuclear energy could replace coal entirely in the USA for the cost of the first 8 years of Cap & Trade or the combined “bailouts/stimulus” costs — and provide jobs building the plants). Meanwhile, the expensive solutions are being “rushed” through without serious debate. Seems like “scam” tactics to me.
Aron,
As a good friend told me as to what ‘youth can do to fight climate change’…
He said that youth are actually the number one problem in new sources of CO2.
They have consumed enormous amounts of energy to date…more than any previous youth generation. They are about to consume a whole lot more…first car/first house/first family/first set of electronics/first airplane rides, etc. They are about to cause (if they haven’t already) the largest government regulatory environment ever, the largest set of new taxes ever and the largest per capita (cheap) energy reduction ever.
Whether I believe him outright or not, his points are interesting to ponder. The younger generation thinks they are going to reduce CO2 emissions and save the world from climate change, but their generation’s mere presence on this planet may negate the whole argument…
Jim
Tronto Stock Exchange Commodity Index is up 3.4%. If this continues (and I expect it will) this will lead to Dangerous Anthropogenic Inflation. If one thinks that AGW was bad wait until they need a wheelbarrow to cart their money around in.
PS, I’m heavily invested in Natural Gas, Oil and Coal. Think of all the energy required to install all that new renewable green energy and the back up required when the sun don’t shine and the wind don’t blow.
“…Mr Obama said the fuel cost savings would offset the higher price…”
Obama is running our personal buying decisions now! You don’t have to worry anymore, Obama takes care of how much you spend and earn, and HE knows what is the best car for you!
Wait a few years, and Obama will simply buy a car for you (Made in China, the land of no carbon limits)
Luis Dias (08:32:19) :
So, you think that Obama is responsible for the bankruptcy of the two automakers?
If not, why the rethorical question?
This kind of demagogy won’t take you anywhere. At least the guys at Climate Resistence know how to make adult arguments.
+++++++++++++++++
He didn’t say that. He said, “Two automobile companies are already going bankrupt”. The implication is that Obama’s policies will bankrupt MORE companies, NOT that Obama is responsible for the current bankruptcies.
This site is used to a higher level of reading comprehension in its troll population than what you have displayed.
Brainwashing indeed!
Yeah, it seems the intent was that the $1300 would be offset by the need to buy less fuel… apparently “communication” was never a strong point for this crop of politicians (then again, if they were to actually “communicate” their intentions they’d probably be dragged through the streets by angry mobs).
“I’m from the government, and I’m here to help…”
Luis Dias (08:32:19) :
Luis, what is your adult argument demonstrating the pro’s of adding a $1300 ‘tax’ to the price of a new car (during a severe recession) for
a} automakers
B} auto buyers
c) auto unions
d) U.S. economy
?
Also Luis:
Please highlight any question, rethorical(sic) or otherwise in this article. Can’t find a single question mark in the whole thing.
Cap-and-Trade is one of Obama’s heartfelt follies. Every time he talks energy policy our president takes on the glassy eyes of the fanatic. With so much wrong and the need of intelligent policy so great, it is a field that a person of his ability could perform wonders had he been properly grounded in the facts or surrounded by capable advisors.
So we find ourselves in the position that Eisenhower warned us about in his farewell address. Here follows what he said then.
“Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades. In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers. The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present — and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”
I think AGW theory the nightmare realization of Eisenhower’s fears. The above quote is often edited out of video of his farewell speech so it is well worth finding an unedited version.
I don’t put much faith in the role of AGW with respect to climate but I DO believe in conservation … oil supplies are rapidly dwindling … it is crazy and totally irresponsible to treat oil as if it were a renewable resource! I think Obama is on the right track here. It seems a shame that some people on this site are more concerned about the cost of gas than they are about future generations!
Jon
Obama’s interference in the running of Chrysler and GM forced them to choose bankruptcy. Obama’s interest is not in preserving the corporate/capitalist structure of the automobile industry, but to supplant it with direct bureaucratic control. The goal is to preserve the union, after it has been corporatized.
In a socialist’s view, the State (singular — not plural) must have total and complete control. Anything less allows obstructionism.
AGW is an effective MacGuffin for the socialist’s script.