The headline reads: “EPA Boss Lee Zeldin Suggests U.S. May Plan to Axe Start Stop System This Week.”
The problem is that the “U.S” – i.e., the federal regulatory apparat – never imposed Automatic Stop/Start (aka ASS) on the vehicle manufacturers. It is strange to speak of “axing” that which was not imposed in the first place.
More like inaccurate.
ASS was imposed on us – by the vehicle manufacturers – as a compliance measure. The system does that by eliminating – temporarily – any “emissions” of the bogeyman gas that has nothing to do with pollution (i.e., CO2) and very slightly upping fuel economy – by automatically shutting off the engine whenever the vehicle stops briefly, as at a red light. It also does the same when you stop to park, which is annoying because people often don’t realize the engine is already off and reflexively push the stop/start button to shut the engine off and that causes it to start when they wanted it to stop.
It is very hard to find anyone who likes ASS – and it is doubtful anyone would have chosen to pay extra for ASS as an option. So, why then is ASS standard in nearly every new vehicle and also most vehicles made over the last five years or so? (The handful of ASS-free exceptions are chiefly the handful of vehicles still available with manual transmissions, because it is more technically challenging to automatically start/stop an engine that is paired with a manual transmission).
So – again – why?
Because compliance.
The “U.S.” – the federal regulatory apparat – did encourage ASS by giving the car companies special credit (for compliance) if they installed ASS in their vehicles, so – naturally – they did so. Just the same as a dog that has been trained to not bark via a shock collar will not bark after awhile, even if he is no longer wearing a shock collar.
But – to get back to headline – the “U.S.” did not “axe” ASS.
More finely, EPA “boss” Lee Zeldin did no such thing.
It is not pedantic to note that there is a difference between ending a compliance credit and “axing” ASS. Especially since the ending of the particular credit in question doesn’t “axe” the compliance pressure that ASS was conjured to reduce. So long as there is pressure to comply with regulatory fatwas pertaining to the reduction of carbon dioxide “emissions” and the increase in miles-per-gallon (i.e., CAFE) the car companies will continue to resort to “technologies” such as ASS – because they must.
Zeldin – and so, Trump – wants to take credit for “axing” ASS and there are many who do not understand why this a lie and will believe that ASS has indeed been “axed.” Never mind that it was never imposed but merely conjured as a way to deal with compliance pressure, as explained above.
These believers – just the right word – do not understand that ASS will continue to be imposed on buyers of new vehicles until the compliance pressure that forces the car companies to impose ASS on car buyers is “axed.”
The problem is EPA “boss” Zeldin hasn’t done that.
What has been done is a probably temporary reduction of compliance pressure – via not kicking up the federal requirement that all new vehicles must average so-and-so many miles-per-gallon (this is CAFE) from the current roughly 35 MPG to 50 MPG, as had been decreed by the “boss” of the EPA when the entity known as “Joe Biden” was president. Fines for noncompliance with the lower standard have also been dialed back. These are good things. But they aren’t fundamental things.
And they are likely not permanent things.
If Trump doesn’t stop listening to his amen chorus, which tells him he’s the greatest and most beautiful president ever; hugely popular – and never mind the tanking polls.
They’re just “TDS.”
The relevant fact is that the regulations that led to ASS and many other compliance technologies being imposed on new car buyers have not been “axed” – let alone the head of the regulatory snake itself. That being the EPA itself.
What is likely to happen if the EPA is “bossed” come 2028 by someone like the “boss” prior to Zeldin, i.e., Michael Regan? Do you suppose that the pressure to comply will remain what it is – or do you suppose it will increase? Do you think an EPA “boss” of the Michael Regan sort would leave things as they are?
Do you also think the Epstein Stuff is a “Democrat Hoax”?
Zeldin says: “Countless Americans passionately despise the start/stop feature in cars. So many have spoken out against this absurd start-stop-start-stop-start-stop concept. The Trump Admin has heard your calls.”
Yeah. And the check’s in the mail, too. There are other, less family-friendly ways to express the same.
The manufacturers are not going to stop putting ASS in new vehicles so long as have to comply with federal regulatory rigmarole. You’d think a publication such as Road and Track would understand this and explain this to its readers.
But then, Road & Track is not what it was, once – back when it was a publication that was opposed to government messing with cars. It is now an apologist (and dissembler) for the government’s messing with cars.
And they ask me why I drink.
. . .
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It’s reasonable to take credit for “axing” a feature by taking away the tax credit for equipping models with this feature. Because it can’t be measured accuratly how much CO2 has been produced by ASS – only estimated – a tax credit for the feature is the way the government put compliance pressure on manufactur ers. So who really thinks the MFG is going to put a feature on a vehicle that is completely hated if there is no compliance reason to do so? Especially when the system requires a second battery, ect.
Sure… they can still offer the system if they want to torture the customer… which Eric knows they may very well want to do reguardless.
I’m sure the small cars are still a couple years away, at which point if the democrat faction of the uniparty retake power, really will be axed before getting off the ground. If compliance gets your hydraulics pumping…
Hi Steve,
You ask: “So who really thinks the MFG is going to put a feature on a vehicle that is completely hated if there is no compliance reason to do so?”
But there is a compliance reason. It is CAFE. The same reason, by the way, that most new cars come standard with seven eight, nine and even ten speed automatics or CVTs – as well as direct injection and cylinder deactivation, to name just a few compliance technologies. Unless the compliance regime is done away with, compliance pressure has only been relaxed a bit.
For the moment.
I feel like you missed part of the story with this article.
From yesterday’s (excellent as always) Coffee & Covid substack:
“In what the White House called “the single largest deregulatory action in American history,” President Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin formally terminated the Obama-era “endangerment finding”— a 2009 regulatory determination that carbon dioxide, methane, and four other greenhouse gases endanger public health. That simple finding cascaded into hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands of rules, guidances, crimes, and other regulations.
EPA built the finding into a massive temple to the climate gods. Then last year, EPA Chief Zeldin made an unimaginable promise. He said he would “drive a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion.” We applauded the sentiment, but nobody believed he could pull it off.”
Let ten thousand lawsuits bloom, proclaims the Lügenpresse:
‘The scientific principle [sic] that was killed on Thursday, the endangerment finding, which found that greenhouse gases endanger public health by heating up the world, itself resulted from a Supreme Court decision 20 years ago. But today’s Supreme Court is far more conservative.
‘And that could complicate the legal strategy for the environmental groups and Democratic-led states that are already lining up to sue the Trump administration. A negative ruling at the Supreme Court could hamstring future leaders seeking to reinstate climate regulations.
“If the rule survives all-but-certain legal challenges, we reiterate that it could reshape U.S. federal climate policy by pendulum-proofing the issue against a Democrat sweep” in the 2028 general elections, Clearview Energy Partners, a consulting firm, said on Friday.
‘But a senior lawyer at the Sierra Club said the group was willing to take the risk that a more conservative Supreme Court might eventually uphold the EPA’s decision to kill the endangerment finding.’ — NYT
https://archive.ph/60XSB#selection-661.0-683.226
My bet is that ASS is history. Without GHG credits — which will take years to reinstate, if ever — ASS is just a cost with no benefit to auto makers. But you can see why the donkey party likes it: it’s named for them. 🙂
Bravo – good article Eric.
It’s not an easy subject to explain to the general public but you’ve done a good job trying to capture what is going on behind the scenes at the OEM and why ASS will continue to persist.
Thanks, BID!
PS: The TA is nearing completion (say it like in Star Wars about the Death Star). I’ve only got to cut the hole for the shifter and put the transmission in and button all the rest together. I’m hoping to have it all done by mid-March and maybe sooner!
Keep going. A car on the road is always more fun than a project in the garage.
Absolutely, BID!
I’ll pull the trigger on the shift linkage (and shifter) as soon as I have saved up the Shekels!
The only thing to,do is get the government , somehow, to get their nose out of our business, car wise and otherwise
ASS is the perfect government solution. It doesn’t solve the non-problem it claims to solve. It doesn’t cost the government anything other than sending a few (many?) regulators out to Dearborn to make sure everyone is complying with the program. And the people get a little reminder that they’re “doing their part” to help combat the non-problem of climate change every time they stop at a red light… even if they aren’t.
ASS is the automotive equivalent of requiring everyone to wear a homemade cloth mask to “stop the spread.”
And don’t forget, it gives the government authorization to collect fines and propagandize against those who won’t get with the program.
Why not go straight to the source?
‘Administrator Zeldin signed the final rule eliminating both the Obama-era 2009 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Endangerment Finding and all subsequent federal GHG emission standards for all vehicles and engines with model years 2012 to 2027 and beyond.
‘The final action, which Administrator Zeldin announced today with President Trump at the White House, eliminates all off-cycle credits.
‘The start-stop off-cycle credit allowed automakers to claim GHG credits without delivering real-world emission reductions or benefits to human health.’
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/administrator-zeldin-eliminates-cycle-credit-almost-universally-hated-start-stop
The focus here is on GHG credits, not fuel economy standards. Greenhouse Gases included carbon dioxide until this final rule was issued.
If EPA’s revocation of the 2009 endangerment finding stands, potentially this change can be permanent.
Though the EPA doesn’t mandate a specific technology, as the R&T article points out, with no GHG credits given or needed, auto makers can and likely will cut costs by deleting it.
Hopefully it will be stopped it’s the dumps fucking thing so annoying but not sure car makers will stop being next dictator might decree it’s required again just get government out of car design.
When ASS was contrived in the 90’s, it was thought that automobiles would have to switch to 24v electrical systems. At the time, all I heard about was the supposed fuel economy benefits which were alleged to be as much as 7% depending on the drive cycle. This was when fuel economy ratings for a typical pickup truck were 12 city/15 highway. Fast forward to today, fuel economy is vastly improved in all vehicles, and not because of ASS. Time to get rid of all of this costly “technology “ that does nothing productive for the average customer.
Most of what we are told is to satisfy the low information voter or as that old Dutch saying roughly goes: “Promise the people much and deliver them little makes the fools happy”
And that’s why we are living the way we are today.
And Leftists/Environmentalists/Democrats from sea to shining sea are gnashing teeth and renting clothes over this fake “rollback”. NC Governor Stein stated that the fight against carbon must continue.
They’re fighting the element, carbon, that is the basis of life on this planet. That tells you all you need to know about their Satanic agenda.
Mandatory Disclaimer: This is in no way an endorsement of Zeldin, or Orange Julius Caesar just because I’m not a Leftists/Environmentalists/Democrat.
Hey Mark, disclaimer aside, you are a MAGA jackboot around here for saying such a thing. Get with the program. Literally. Get with “the program”.