Guest post by David Middleton
Doubly too fracking funny!
In July 2011, the Obama Maladministration increased the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard for passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2025. However, a couple of funny things happened on the way to greentopia.
Consumers didn’t cooperate…
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Fuel Targets Threatened by Demand for Big Autos
By BILL VLASIC JULY 18, 2016
DETROIT — Despite praising automakers for recent gains in fuel economy, two federal agencies said on Monday that surging consumer demand for pickups and sport utility vehicles made it unlikely that the industry could meet the government’s ambitious projections a decade from now.
If fuel prices remain low, and trucks continue to outsell cars, the industry will probably not meet the goal of 54.5 miles per gallon as a fleetwide average by 2025, but will probably come in at only about 50 miles a gallon, according to a report by the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The report issued on Monday was termed a draft by administration officials, and included input from the California Air Resources Board, as well as the two federal agencies.
That lower fuel economy number would translate into higher levels of carbon dioxide emissions, which environmentalists say would make global climate change worse and undercut efforts to curtail greenhouse gases agreed to by the Obama administration in last year’s Paris climate accord.
[…]
And the EPA’s fuel efficiency “test is [fracked] up big time”…
The EPA’s Fuel Efficiency Testing May Not Work. Like, at All
IN 2012 PRESIDENT Obama instituted new, aggressive fuel economy standards for automakers selling cars in the United States. The executive branch—represented here by the Environmental Protection Agency, basically—mandated that every car manufacturer would have to have a fleetwide average gas mileage of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
The Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards (CAFE to transit nerds) take the gas mileage of every car a company sells—from Yaris to Tundra, Verano to Enclave, Golf to whatever—and average it out. You want to build a gas-guzzling, smoke-pumping, V-18 for hauling a camper dragging a boat? You’re gonna need to sell a hybrid, too.
Yesterday, a technical assessment report from the EPA, National Highway Traffic Administration, and the California Air Resources Board took a look at those standards and said, yeah, car companies should be able to hit them. The technology is there, or will be.
But there’s a problem: Even if the car companies do, they don’t. Or at least, no one has any way to know if they do. Because the EPA’s test to make sure automakers are hitting their CAFE numbers—the sole federal, legal requirement that cars get more efficient—probably doesn’t work. At all.
“The test is [fracked] up big time,” says Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign. “It’s akin to telling all parents that their kids are getting A’s on the exam, when they’re not.”
[…]
As an added bonus… The total CO2 emissions from 54.5 mpg aren’t significantly different than 50 mpg and won’t have any measurable effect on global temperatures.
My math could be way off here, particularly since I made a lot of assumptions and I should have worked through the total carbon emissions rather than just converting it straight to ppm… However, it’s pretty clear that U.S. CAFE standards won’t have any measurable affect on Earth’s climate… And, as always, liberal environmentalists feel good about setting CAFE standards and giving the EPA useless tasks to perform… And feeling good about wasting the money of taxpayers and consumers is what really counts.
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There is no 50 MPG being achieved. It amounts to paying Tesla thousands of dollars for every car sold.
Why isn’t someone questioning the EPA’s, and the government’s, power to regulate fuel consumption? There’s no direct health or safety issue involved, only unproven assumptions, so in the absence of a declaration of war, the government at any level has no power to set limits on fuel consumption. The concept of limited government enshrined in the constitution, the Founders’ greatest gift, is being lost here by a failure to push back.
It’s one of the many mutations of the Clean Air Act.
Ok they could do it the way they do it in most other countries, by taxation. Add the UK rate of ~$2.9/US gallon for unleaded gasoline and I’m sure you’d see a shift to lower fuel consumption vehicles.
The US federal and state governments are doing the opposite of European countries. Fed tax on Diesel is 6 cents/gallon higher than gasoline and most states add another differential of 6 to 10 cents per gallon on top of that. http://www.gaspricewatch.com/web_gas_taxes.php Without differential taxation, Diesel at the pump would be cheaper than gasoline. They are discouraging more fuel efficient vehicles by taxation. I moved from CA where the taxes on fuel are 69 & 79 cents/gal to TX where the taxes are 38 & 44 cents/gal.
Gentle people, the leaders of the AGWers are really time travelers from the future! There is no oil available except that which is created during the process of making soylent green. They are trying to save their society and return fat to their diet.
Yes. All of this will indeed become totally irrelevant should Trump be elected. He’ll also use every other form of domestic energy to achieve energy independence.
His type actually want to be successful.
Obama 3(Clinton)..same ole destructive agenda with vested $$ for the positioned wealthy.
“Yuge” difference if you’re bought and paid for( and have a constituency that’s, well, not
very smart).
cafe combined with ethanol blends really sucks. here in my area of maine no pure gas anywhere.
my 2010 marquis runs around 19-23mpg (rural driving lot of short steep hills) but by using large car I can pull trailer and avoid needing separate truck also.
can easily tow 1500-2000lbs payload (actual weighed materials in trailer) with no issues. few weeks ago had 1510lbs metal in trailer, tipped scales over 6700lbs and towed fine.
and this vehicle rated to survive a lot, can get rear ended at high speeds and survive. full frame also so I know I can make it last 18 yrs like I did my 1997 version.
to meet cafe standards weight reduction usually the initial way to go before engine and gearing tech catches up. dangerous.
If it were a hybrid you’d cut fuel consumption with the added benefit of higher torque at low speed.
let me know when you tow a dual axle 16ft trailer with a hybrid.
irony. while towing my 5×10 trailer (I have multiple trailers) with my car I have had to (5 times so far) hook onto a prius (that had a 4×6 trailer on it) and tow IT up the hill here by my house.
and tongue load kills weight on front wheels on it.
so I had my trailer (900 lbs empty) with 800lb of mower in it (multiple wheel and front weights) hooked onto a prius with a tow rope hauling IT and ITS trailer (total weight of trailer and mower approx 800lbs) up the hill here.
yeah …..torque….does no good when vehicle weight too light to tow anything wortha damn.
would love to convert my car to a diesel generator powering a traction motor bound to third member input shaft on rear axle.
1/n, how does it work?
Seems obvious until you understand how a Leftie counts: One, Two, Many, Mine.
The basic reason for the ridiculously high CAFE standard is simple. It’s unobtainable. Therefore the fees (taxes) required to make up the difference will force vehicles to be much more expensive, reducing the number of people who will be able to afford one.
This is similar to the EPA regulation that requires refiners to use a certain biofuel, But that biofuel is not available, so the refiners are fined (taxed) to increase the government income. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/business/energy-environment/companies-face-fines-for-not-using-unavailable-biofuel.html
If the banks are “too big to fail” at what point is the government “too big to fail”?
Buy top quality, long-life used cars and leave the life of debt, underfunded retirement plans, and policy subservience to others.
Done! 1983 Mercedes-Benz 300TD diesel wagon running on 50 parts used vegoil from Chinese restaurants I get free mixed with 1 part paint thinner in Summer and 2 parts paint thinner in Winter in Charleston, SC. Exhaust smells faintly of frying fish, not french fries. Has approx 680K miles without engine or automatic transmission overhauls. Wore out 3 speedometers, 2 fuel guage senders, 2 sets load leveler hydraulic cylinders, 1 steering wheel, 2 shift knobs and a few odds and ends like power window switches. Paid $2500 for it from a banker when his wife got new 300E. Change Rotella T every 3000 miles. 5th set of tires….