EPA head says agency will reverse regulations that made cars automatically turn off engines when you stop 🙌

Not The Bee ^ | May 12, 2025 | Staff

[Red Badger]

This is the most idiotic government regulation of the last decade (and that's saying something). The technology shuts off the engine every time the vehicle stops in traffic or at a red light/stop sign.

The average driver might save $1,000 over a decade of using the vehicle if they live in an urban area with frequent stops, but Enhanced Flooded Batteries and heavy-duty starters also cost more, meaning maintenance swallows up much or all of their savings.

(They also have to put up with the psychological torture of having their car turn off and on every five seconds.)

Here's YouTuber Scotty Vilmar explaining in his unique style why this tech is maddening. 👇

New vehicles are not "required" to have such systems, but Swamp bureaucrats created massive incentives for automakers to create something that customers actually hate, all in the name of saving the planet [read: padding their wallets]. Two agencies are primarily responsible for this stupidity in the U.S.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration oversees Corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards.

The Environmental Protection Agency oversees greenhouse gas regulations.

The logic for these regulations goes back to the scarcity scare of the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s. Even though we have more available oil than ever, back then, politicians were worried that the stupid peasants would use up all our oil reserves in a crisis, so they aimed to impose regulations on us.

If they imposed taxes and rules on the peasantry, however, the peasants would get angry.

Instead, our ruling elite decided to make it unprofitable not to follow generic rules established by faceless bureaucracies, weaponizing the system to create products that are less efficient and unwanted by customers so that government workers could justify their paychecks.

For example, in 2007, Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act that tightened CAFE standards, with a target of 35 miles per gallon for the average fuel economy of passenger cars and light trucks by 2020. This forced automakers to figure out how to make vehicles that got that kind of mileage even if the market demand was not there.

A revolving door of such bills and regulations has made modern cars complex, expensive, buggy, and annoying: A living example of the absolute mess created by government intervention.

[TexasGator]

“I doubt “

You doubts are wrong.

[painter]

Bump

[Elsie]

Almost

[Elsie]

Copilot is giving me all kinda crap over this. I keep reminding it that the disclaimer at the start states:

"Copilot is sometimes wrong."