Posted on 04/04/2018 7:08:38 AM PDT by reaganaut1
CNN and the Reagan administration were born in the same year. Presidencies have been partly a “reality show” ever since. The Donald Trump reality show this week turns to overhauling the Obama fuel-economy mandate. Let’s recall a few things about how those rules were born.
Team Obama’s target of 54.5 miles per gallon, as a congressional investigation later found, was not the product of science and engineering but the White House’s desire for an impressive sounding “headline number.” (The decimal was apparently included to show the White House had a sense of humor.)
So full of loopholes, credits (including for electric cars) and testing fudge was the scheme that the real outcome is now estimated at closer to 36 mpg. To this day, the media touts the White House’s 2011 claim of CO2 cuts of “6 billion metric tons over the life of the program.” Hunt down the authoritative source, the EPA’s Regulatory Impact Analysis filed with its final rule-makings, and it turns out the estimated savings are only 2.96 billion tons “over the lifetime of vehicles” covered by the program.
Not that the difference between six billion and three billion is meaningful. Total human emissions over the same period would be at least two trillion tons. The atmospheric reservoir currently holds about two trillion tons. Indeed, one consequence of chronic journalistic incuriosity on climate issues is that governments get away with “green” initiatives that are so ludicrously puny in relation to the biosphere, they amount to costs without benefits.
Then there’s this: While Mr. Obama was in office, the scheme was deliberately designed to prop up Detroit’s pickup and SUV profits so the administration could claim a successful auto rescue. A Toyota lobbyist called it a “second bailout for Detroit.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
costs without benefits.
That's the money shot right there, isn't it?
ELIMINATE the ethanol mandate now! It does no good, saves no energy and damages engines, especially small engines... devastating to 2-cycle ones. But it co$t the taxpayers much money, so politicians of course love it!
To paraphrase C.S. Lewis... “All tyranny is done for the ‘good’ of the people!”
It all began with the SCOTUS decision in Mass vs EPA in which SCOTUS said CO2 was a pollutant.
In that decision, SCOTUS specifically mentioned AUTOMOBILE TAILPIPES.
Obama then agreed with, and backed the GOP's plan for CAP and TRADE. Shirley you morons remember cap and trade.
It is real simple: Most of the CO2 comes from the tailpipe of autos/light duty trucks and Power Plants.
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