The Thing’s New Rule

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The Biden Thing has just “ruled” – at least it used the right word – that all new cars that aren’t electric cars will average 55 miles-per-gallon by four years from now (2026).

This amounts to a Great Leap Forward of almost 20 miles-per-gallon from the currently-ordered 36 miles-per-gallon all new cars must achieve – else their manufacturers be punished for making them via “gas guzzler” fines applied to them.

Which are then passed on to the people who buy them. Which makes it progressively more difficult to afford them.

That being the point of the fines, you understand.

The Biden Thing (and prior Things) consider it their right and duty to punish you for buying the car you want if it doesn’t do what they like.

The free market being an intolerable affront to these Things. Can’t have supply and demand determined by . . . supply and demand. That would be even worse a thing than free association.

The Things will say they are “saving you money on gas” via their “rules.” Which is true in the same way that “ruling” you must live in a small  apartment in the city “saves” you the bother of having to cut a lawn. They do not say anything about the cost of the apartment – including the diminishment of your personal space – and your control over it.

Nor, of course, do they say anything about using “rules” to  make you pay more for what you don’t want. An affront which brings us to the following fact:

Right now, only two new (2022 model year) cars meet the new “rule”  – just barely. They are the Toyota Prius and the Hyundai Ioniq.

Both are partially electric cars (i.e, hybrids) and also small cars designed to be primarily economical cars. They are not bad cars. Indeed, they have their merits – chief among them their ability to average about 55 MPG. But they are not cars most people want – else you’d already see most people driving them.

Italics to make the point.

Why then aren’t most people driving them – assuming (as the Things insist) that “saving gas” is the most important consideration motivating car buyers? The answer, of course, is that it isn’t – even though the Biden Thing has caused the cost of gas to almost double in less than twelve months.    

Small hybrids are wonderful – as commuter cars and cars for single people and even small (emphasis on small) families. They are inadequate for large families and the bottom line fact is that many – most people – do not want to drive a small hybrid car, even if it does average 55 MPG.  

They prefer to drive some other kind of car. More precisely, a crossover or an SUV or a pick-up, the three most popular kinds of vehicles – by far. None of which averages 55 MPG.

There isn’t a single car – without batteries and motors – that meets this standard or comes even close averaging it.

A few non-hybrid medium-small cars manage just slightly more than 40 MPG . . . on the highway.

They average much less.

Consider what that implies about the purpose of the Thing’s New Rule.

All of those other kinds of cars are to be “ruled” off the market, by positing a “rule” which they cannot “comply” with. There are hard deck limits to what is possible, in terms of physical facts, in terms of engineering. In terms of cost – and the ability of people to absorb it.

It’s not possible – as a purely technical matter – to build a car, crossover, SUV or pick-up that averages 55 MPH without converting it into at least a partially electric car, crossover, SUV or pick-up. And even then, it will be exceptionally difficult and very expensive, both in terms of the cost of the technology necessary (adding hybrid components adds thousands to the cost of the vehicle) and the cost of the compromises that will be necessary, such as diminishment of size and capabilities.

Well then, just buy an entirely electric car!

Like the new GM Hummer. It’s only $112k to start.

This being the ultimate point of the new “rule.” Which is to say, to make non-electric and even partially electric vehicles at least as expensive as electric cars  . . . but without the charms of electric cars.

A “ruled” role reversal is under way.

Non-electric cars will get progressively weaker (note the trend toward micro-sized engines, even in $50k-plus luxury cars) while becoming more expensive and complex (hybrid drivetrains, nine-ten speed transmissions, multiple turbos applied to smaller and smaller engines, rendering them less and less likely to last much longer than the warranty coverage) and so less desirable.

Kind of like electric cars would be . . . in a free market.

And so, by four years from now, it is likely there will be not much left that isn’t at least partially electric – and much more expensive, regardless.

The point of that being to drive all cars off the market – or at least, out of the reach of almost all people. Some will say this isn’t so. I ask them to say how most people will be able to continue buying cars when the average cost of a car sails to $30,000-plus for the handful of partially electric (hybrid) cars still available by then to $40,000-plus for the electric cars which our rulers are determined to force onto the “market” even before then?

Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!

We are setting robust and rigorous standards that will aggressively reduce the pollution that is harming people and our planet – and save families money at the same time,” says EPA Thing Michael Regan.

Saves?

This isn’t about “saving gas” or reducing gas  – i.e., the  production of carbon dioxide, the new excuse for the “rules” from on high.

How does an electric car with 1,000-plus pounds of caustic materials that requires massive energy inputs to manufacture and which requires massive – and nonexistent – energy capacity to support save – or even reduce – anything?

Well, except new car ownership.

The point of the thing, you see.

. . .

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78 COMMENTS

  1. My 1997 Ford F150 5.4L V8 gets 13-18 mpg. I’ve had it for almost 25 years so I’ve enjoyed $0.00 car payments for 20 of those years so I really don’t care about fuel economy. I like that I have a tough, dependable 4WD vehicle for Idaho winters. Considering they don’t make them like this anymore, I never intend to get rid of it. Most reliable vehicle I’ve ever owned

  2. To my disgust, my electric utility shills for EVs:

    https://cars.aps.com

    By assuming electric power stays cheap (almost certainly wrong), plus cheaper maintenance, plus (on some models) a $7,500 federal tax credit, the EV always wins against the IC-engined comparison vehicle.

    And I’m paying for this self-serving, gov-regulated, monopoly-sponsored swill.

    Makes me want to install one of them stupid-inefficient 1960s gas lanterns in the front yard, as a raised middle finger to the virtue signalers. You too can wastefully flare hydrocarbons!

    • anon 1

      the biggest cost of owning a new car is depreciation, EV’s have horrible steep depreciation, it should be the main reason not to buy one. the best idea for all new cars is to have a 2 to 4 year lease, end of lease turn it in get a new one. a 2 year lease is good because after 2 years you get maintenance not usually covered by warranty, wear items, brakes, tires, hoses, etc., all the new cars/trucks are full of electronic junk and are very complex, you do not want to have to pay to fix these abortions. or buy something pre 1996, no airbags, abs, multiple computers, simpler, easier to repair, depreciation will be very low, but there will be maintenance, a trade off.

      • anon 1

        It will be like in iceland during the 2009 financial crash, in the middle of the night you could hear explosions, people were setting fire to their very expensive financed range rovers, because they were going broke overnight and were trying to escape debt, owning liabilities. Is this the real reason so many teslas catch fire????

  3. Canute set his throne by the sea shore and commanded the incoming tide to halt and not wet his feet and robes. Yet “continuing to rise as usual [the tide] dashed over his feet and legs without respect to his royal person. Then the king leapt backwards, saying: ‘Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws.'” He then hung his gold crown on a crucifix, and never wore it again “to the honour of God the almighty King”.[2]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Canute_and_the_tide

    If only we had such wise “rulers” today. O’Biden really thinks he can control physics, the tides and the heavens.

  4. This is what we get with a “representative democacy”, which is a nice sounding way to say dictatorship. The world is all about CONTROL (decisionmaking) — the dictators have it, but we people are supposed to have it.

  5. The way I see this whole fiasco playing out, years from now, if auto makers really are beholden to such absurd standards, is that a huge market of black-market vehicles will open up, laws be damned! People need to drive, and if all they can end up affording, eventually, is a non-DOT-certified vehicle, they will be left little choice

  6. This kind of change is disruptive to car manufacturing. I work in this area now, supplying components to OEM’s, and product R&D takes 7-8 years from beginning until the first sheet metal is stamped.

    Remember how a bunch of auto manufacturers said they’d stick to Obama’s original 55mpg mandate when Trump relaxed it? It was because they were already well into their 8 year cycle and this was the most pragmatic business decision, which they wrapped in a bunch of virtue-signaling PR.

    Read about Cuba’s car culture to see how bad it can get. Our wise leaders are idiots, and that’s the actual outcome of their policies.

  7. anon 1

    Forget about EV’s, build your own, save money

    Caterham 170
    85 hp,
    0 to 100 (62 mph) 6.9 seconds,
    1100 lb,
    58.3 mpg
    It is green: It’s compliant with both Euro 6 and London ULEZ rules, with a CO2 figure of just 109g/km, that is cleaner than a Toyota hybrid.
    1100 lb = uses only 20% of the earth’s resources to build compared to a tesla.

    The biggest cost in a car is depreciation (should be the main reason to not buy an EV), Caterham super 7’s hold their value far better then almost any other car (electric cars have horrible steep depreciation).
    Very little depreciation and 58.3 mpg = one of the lowest cost cars to drive.

    The most simple car, wrench on it yourself.

    A great reason to own: The ultimate anti nanny state car, no driver assists, air bags, etc., only has a computer to run the fuel injection. (the Prisoner drove one.)

    The best feature: more fun to drive then any other car, at any price.

    You get two cars in one, use it to commute to work, drive it on the track on the weekend.

    https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/seven/first-drive

    • anon 1

      VW made a lightweight diesel hybrid that got almost 300 mpg, that was a better solution then EV’s.

      A Mk4 VW Jetta diesel could get over 50 mpg on the Highway, with a huge range.

      A Mk 1 VW 1800 lb., was fitted with a Mk 4 turbo diesel, it was fast, 0 to 60 in about 6 seconds and got 65 mpg highway. That is better then an EV in lots of ways.
      The VW 4 cyl 1.9 lt. diesel was so good it was swapped into lots of small trucks, etc., more then 450 lb ft torque possible, great fuel economy, can last 500,000 miles.

      Gasoline engines produce around 40 percent more carbon dioxide (CO2) than diesel engines, catalytic converters cannot reduce the CO2 produced by the engine.

      Diesel engines emit more N2O and CH4 then gas engines but there are measures that can be taken to reduce diesel emissions. Diesel fuel catalysts, catalytic converters, and particle filters can reduce emissions greatly.
      The air coming out of the tailpipe on a modern diesel is cleaner then the air in a big city.

      The GAIA religion/green/globalist/ one world government killed the diesel over N2O and the gas engine soon over CO2, they say zero emissions is the law soon, the exhaust coming out of an ICE engine is something like .00001% pollutants but that is higher then 0%, so they will be banned, this is insanity.
      EV’s aren’t zero emissions either, they are remote emissions and have a dozen other far bigger issues, including pollution (production and recyling), safety, cost, charging time, weight, battery life, not enough chargers, grid can’t supply the electricity = insanity, etc. .

      The odds are over 0% that there is a huge agenda that has nothing to do with global warming.
      You will own nothing, gates will still drive his 959 Porsche.

      • anon 1

        it is mechanical art made to go fast only, there is nothing on it that isn’t for performance . it is a 1957 Lotus design, which appears to be a copy of a 1913 Bugatti type 22. back in those days they new very little about aero, the easiest way to make a super 7 go fast on the track is to take the windshield off, some have no windshield.

      • super 7’s get a lot of attention at cars and coffee, they are completely different looking, they are the lightest car around by far, 1/2 the weight of a miata or cobra, you practically never see them on the street, people photograph them like crazy, people say what is that? then you have to go into a long history of the super 7 (which is very interesting, it was originally a tax dodge). they are similar looking to a 1913 Bugatti type 22. new cars look like huge overweight alien space ships in comparison, all the same aero look and full of electronics.

        • anon 1

          this guy daily drives a 1913 Bugatti type 22.

          these cars were a work of art, 100% mechanical, no electronics, all copper and brass, beautifully designed, these cars had no starter, no generator, no cooling fan, no distributor (it has a magneto so it runs without a battery, more dependable), less things to go wrong……..108 years old runs perfectly, it weighs 1100 lb., lighter and simpler is better.

          new cars are all plastic and computers, are super complex, complicated, depend on 1000’s of things working together, 100% all the time, or you tow the piece of junk, very difficult to diagnose, fix. after 10 years just scrap it, not worth fixing or replacing the 2000 lb of batteries.

          with car design we have gone backwards in many ways.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVl3cEkSSo0

    • If you don’t, figurative enslavement turns into actual imprisonment. What’s the alternative? For someone who has a family to support, the choice is to pay, or leave said family destitute. Some choice.

      • Our founding fathers had families, risked jail or death if they had lost the revolt. All for us that have given it all up. Just saying….

        • I have 2 words for you:

          Quarterlies

          Withholding

          “Voluntary compliance” is mostly a fiction. Forcible compliance would be much more apt.

  8. By the way, I know there are lots of Star Trek fans here, Amazon Prime is dropping all of them. I checked around a bit and so has Netflix and Hulu. Has Paramount/CBS stopped offering them to other streaming services?

  9. They are advertising this on the telly:

    https://www.electrameccanica.com/solo/

    I was intrigued at first, that they might let people have something like the Elio, expect this is completely electric, and carries only the driver.

    Also, it’s selling for $18,500, but you can only reserve one for now, meaning they aren’t actually selling yet. Why? I’m guessing it won’t pass “saaaaaafety” standards, and will eventually be scrapped.

    Also, why can China sell a little electric car with a similar range (~100 miles), but carry 2 people, for $4,500? What’s with the additional $14,000? Meeting the aforementioned saaaaafety standards? Do they want to sell the goddamned things or not?

  10. Regarding republicans RINO’s…next election needs to be a time of purge. 2022 will go heavily towards the right but the RINO’s or specific RINO’s need to go, and this would be the opportune time to do it. In SW Washington we have a candidate running against Jaimie Herrerra Butler who was an R but votes D. Joe Kent is going to win and we are going to send the right guy back to WDC. Find your person who will get the RINO’s out and help them win!

    This might be our last chance to save the republic.

    • Jaimie Herrerra Beutler has the sympathy vote from her child’s health issues which allow the Congresswoman to “vote her conscience” on subjects like impeachment.

      That seat will be hers as long as she wants it.

    • BTW, we lived in Vancouver, WA for four years, from 2010-2014. In the end, we couldn’t make buying a house work despite my wife working as a physician.

      No offense, but one of the happiest moments of my life was watching the lights of Baker, Oregon recede in my rearview mirror as I made a mad nighttime dash out of the Northwest heading to Texas.

    • Well, before Nunz chimes in… 🙂 Hans, sadly, that time passed before any of us was born. The Republic was destroyed by the Tyrant Lincoln. Then each tyrant after that, shoveled more dirt into the grave. At this point, the current group of tyrants, aren’t even giving lip service to the illusions/delusions that have allowed the system to semi function for generations.

      Look at their in your face theft of the last few “elections” as just one example. They have
      convinced themselves that they can do anything, and get away with it. Given past history,
      they might be half right. But they aren’t the only ones moving pieces around in the
      shadows. The Republic is dead. But the flame of liberty lives on. There is still the Remnant.
      You can know only two things about them. One, they exist. Two, they will find you.
      I find that comforting. But I suspect others will not.

  11. The English East India Company started all of this madness on December 31, 1600 CE, became a Crown corporation. Then they opened fire on the Canton River and the rest is history.

    A 10,000 pound Hummer EV is only 11 USD per pound when you break it down, in 1000 days at 11 dollars per day, it’ll be paid for, plus tax, electricity, interest, insurance, licensing, fees, every type of cost will be there.

    Every farmer I see drives a pickup truck and owns a diesel-fueled tractor. They have combines, you know, machines that reduce the workload and increase yields.

    Roundup Ready corn and soybeans grow weed-free after the weeds emerge and Roundup herbicide is applied, cuts down on cultivation, saves time, fuel and money.

    After the harvest, you can fly down to Corpus Christi for the winter and relax. Might have to cut back some on some spending.

    Anhydrous ammonia is at 1200 dollars per tank load, it was 200 dollars a couple of years ago. The hydrocarbon conundrum continues to enter into the malaise.

    Prepare to pay through the nose for your groceries.

    The days of 85 cent diesel fuel and 99 cent gasoline are gone forever.

    Before Obama became the selected President, my access charge for electricity from the electric company was 8 dollars per month. It is now 49.75 USD each month. After 100 months of paying for expensive electricity, it begins to bite. A rather large gap between 800 dollars and 4975 dollars.

    Bends you severely, might even break you. All the while Obama frolics in the sun, surf and sand in Hawaii.

    The most compassionate, caring human being ever to exist, way to go Barry.

    Dierks Bentley’s ‘Drunk on a Plane’ is great. Inspiring music, makes you want to drink.

    • That is why I am hanging on to my 02 Beetle TDI. Not the optimum form-factor, but I should be able to keep it running after the Automotive Electropocalypse.

      Note also that Uncle is also trying very hard to get rid of Diesels in general with peepee injection, exhaust crematorium filters, cooled EGR, expensive ULSD, etc. All of the above kill the brute simplicity of compression ignition, make it unreliable, and make the efficiency advantage null.

      All is going as the Marxists have foreseen!

  12. Controlling you with vaxxports and digital currency is simply not enough. They need to control where and when you go in advance by putting you on public transport. This will greatly simplify the constant surveillance. Also, the resources now spent on roads, traffic control, and traffic law enforcement can now be spent on even more surveillance.
    I just can’t wait to see what they do about the ICVs already on the road. Probably exorbitant fuel taxes. I’m starting to fervently hope the economy collapses, so we can start over without a civil war.

  13. “Bind them down with the chains of the constitution.” How’s that working out. There is no justice in this life. They literally “Believe” they are God. From POTUS to the local code enforcer. There must be consequences or it just gets worse. “The Jim Bell System.”

    • Hi Larry,

      Indeed –

      Our rulers are now openly ruling… via “rules.” Not laws, passed with some pretense of “democratic” process – and accountability. I consider us freed of any obligation to obey or suffer under these “rules” and encourage the appropriate actions.

      • While constantly caterwauling about a “threat to our democracy”. Can there possibly be a bigger threat than a dictator sitting on a throne issuing edicts dependent upon his mood? Democracy is bad enough, in fact too bad in my opinion.

      • The problem is that this has been going on a LOT longer than most of us would like to admit. FDR’s New Deal established a quasi-dictatorship. In his “First 100 Days” Congress rolled over and passed open-ended legislation allowing the executive branch to make all of these “rules” that had the force of law.

        There were of course legal challenges to this, but when FDR threatened to pack the Supreme Court, they suddenly “got religion” and started declaring it was all perfectly constitutional.

        The most outrageous case was Wickard v. Filburn, in which the Dept. of Agriculture was empowered to actually set prices and set quotas on how much farmers were ALLOWED to grow, else they be fined. The justification for this was supposedly the “interstate commerce clause.”

        Roscoe Filburn, an Ohio farmer, exceeded his government quota and was fined. He argued that the wheat he grew was on his own private property, and he used it to feed his own livestock. He never sold it at all, and certainly never sold it in “interstate commerce,” as it never even left his property.

        The Supreme Court ruled that Filburn’s FAILURE TO BUY wheat in interstate commerce at prices the government had set had an “effect” on interstate commerce opposite of what the government intended, and he lost the case.

        The decision has never been overturned.

        And here we are.

        Of course FDR was the same guy who told us we had to go to Europe, partner with the Soviet Union, and kill Germans so that we could “live in freedom…”

        • “had an “effect” on interstate commerce”, and there is not a single thing that does not have such effect. Including how many sheets of TP you use per trip. So the federal psychopaths have “jurisdiction” over that. Or so they say. One of FDR’s SCOTUS judges openly stated “the Constitution says what we say it says”, in spite of the document giving SCOTUS no such authority.

    • Larry, just so you know that phrase is a tier one flag. It terrifies certain parties. Given that all of the components for it now exist, it should.

    • We are watching the result of generations of education that teaches us nothing of our rights, powers, history, philosophy of America.
      We are taught that we are free & #1

      The populace has been idled by TV and mental laziness while the pedophiles have conducted their abuse on almost every last right we think we have.

      One result of which is a product that arguably made America America – freedom of the open road, go anywhere anytime – get destroyed in front of our eyes, by edict.

      Smell that freedom.

      • anon 1

        The Prophecy of a KGB Agent
        a 1985 interview of Yuri Bezmenov, a KGB agent who defected to the West in 1970.

        The interview is about the Soviet Union’s (today china’s ccp style government together with the bankster/wef/un/.0001% great reset, globalist, new world order central government worldwide) strategy to subvert the United States and all countries worldwide. It is eye-opening and I wish to share a quote here first:

        “Marxism-Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generations of American students, without being challenged or counter-balanced by the basic values of Americanism and American patriotism … The demoralization process in the United States is basically completed already … Most of it is done by Americans to Americans thanks to lack of moral standards.

        As I mentioned before, exposure to true information does not matter anymore. A person who was demoralized is unable to assess true information. The facts tell nothing to him. Even if I shower him with information, with authentic proof, with documents, with pictures. Even if I take him by force to the Soviet Union and show him concentration camp he will refuse to believe it until he is going to receive a kick in his fat bottom. When the military boot crashes him, then he will understand, but not before that. That’s the tragic of the situation of demoralization.”

        What Mr. Bezmenov described 35 years ago is unfolding in front of our very eyes. To me, what is most alarming is that the demoralization is mostly “done by Americans to Americans due to lack of moral standards.” Actually, as Bezmenov pointed out, “for the last 25 years, actually it’s over-fulfilled because the demoralization now reaches such areas where previously not even Comrade Andropov [KGB leader during 1967–1982] and all his experts would even dream of such a tremendous success.”

        According to Bezmenov, only 10 to 15 percent of the KGB’s personnel and resources were allocated to traditional clandestine espionage in James Bond’s style, with the rest going to “legitimate, overt, and open” ideological subversion. He said that subversion happens in four stages: demoralization, destabilization, crisis, and “normalization.”

        The first stage, lasting for about 15 to 20 years, the period of time needed to raise a generation, is to brainwash the public with communist ideology. Manipulation of the media and academia is required for this purpose.

        The second stage focuses on throwing society into chaos, and it usually takes 2-5 years. During this stage, the status quo in economy, foreign relations, and defense systems are changed. The establishment promises all kinds of goodies in order to win people’s support for creating a massive government that is intrusive to people’s lives. Media and academia are also essential to make it successful.

        The third stage instigates a crisis that leads to a civil war, revolution, or foreign invasion. This stage only took 2-6 months.

        This is the stage when the leftist idealists, or “useful idiots,” are no longer needed, because they would be disillusioned, become obstacles, push back, turn against the new government. They are going to be eliminated, exiled, or imprisoned. note: this is the interesting part, when the communists takeover, leftist idealists, or “useful idiots,” who helped the communists are exterminated. for one they know too much.

        it happened in Grenada, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and China. “It is the same pattern everywhere,” said Bezmenov. when the communists takeover leftist idealists, or “useful idiots,” who helped the communists are exterminated.

        These three steps culminate in the fourth and final stage of “normalization”—the populace begins to accept and assimilate communism. This final stage can take up to 20 years to complete.

        The amazing book, “How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World,” gives a comprehensive analysis of the non-violent infiltration of communism in the West. In 1884, a year after Karl Marx’s death, the British Fabian Society was founded to bring about communism gradually. p. e. trudeau brought fabian communism to canada.

        It encourages its members to advance socialist aims by joining suitable organizations and ingratiating themselves with important figures, such as cabinet ministers, senior administrative officials, industrialists, university deans, and church leaders. Since then, many American intellectuals began accepting communist ideas or its Fabian socialist variant.

        The 1960s counterculture movement produced a large number of young anti-traditional students who were influenced greatly by cultural Marxism and Frankfurt School theory. After graduation, they entered the institutions with the most influence over society and culture, such as universities, news media, government agencies, and non-profits.

        What guided them at that time was mainly the theory of “the long march through the institutions” proposed by Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. This “long march” aimed to alter the most important traditions of western civilization. As a result, generations of young people have been indoctrinated with the communist ideology.
        Why are Intellectuals So Prone to Communism?

        Intellectuals tend to be fooled by radical ideologies. This phenomenon has drawn the attention of scholars. British historian Paul Johnson found that radical intellectuals share the fatal weaknesses of arrogance and egocentrism.

        Founding Father John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Interestingly enough, a ruthless communist dictator, Joseph Stalin, echoed his point from another angle, “America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within.”

  14. ‘The Biden Thing has just “ruled” – at least it used the right word – that all new cars that aren’t electric cars will average 55 miles-per-gallon by four years from now (2026).’ — eric

    We’re gonna have to track down the Regan Thing’s diktat and review the actual text. Another news source interprets it like this:

    ‘The final rule … is expected to result in average fuel economy label values of 40 miles per gallon, replacing the Trump standard that would achieve 32 mpg in model year 2026.

    ‘The final rule is tighter than a proposal the agency released last summer, with the “aggressive posture” kicking in during 2025 and 2026, Regan noted.’

    https://www.eenews.net/articles/epa-tightens-car-emission-standards-tosses-trump-era-rules/

    Thought experiment: if the R party wins control of both houses of Congress next November, taking office in January 2023, what will they do?

    Pass a resolution under the Congressional Review Act objecting to the EPA mandates, which the Biden Thing will veto?

    Then what? Stand by and watch fecklessly as the one-two punch of recession and costly, unattractive vehicles bankrupts the US auto industry again?

    As ol’ Rhett Butler used to say, ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.

    • “Thought experiment: if the R party wins control of both houses of Congress next November, taking office in January 2023, what will they do?”

      Absolutely nothing. There’s a canonical truth to modern America:

      The democrats will destroy the nation and the republicans will do nothing about it.

      • The only difference between the two parties is the speed of the handcart to Hell we ride on. The Republicans at least claim to want to drive it a bit slower. The destination remains the same. The end result being how far we land from the face of the cliff. Faster, further. Slower, closer.

    • “what will they do? Pass a resolution under the Congressional Review Act objecting to the EPA mandates, which the Biden Thing will veto?”
      Congress does hold the purse strings. All they have to do is cut EPA’s budget until they cut it out.

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