Apparently, it’s ok for Uncle to “cheat.”
Not on emissions tests, as VW is being stoned to death for doing, but on federal fuel efficiency requirements (CAFE, in Uncle-speak).
Would you believe he is not only going to triple the “gas guzzler” fines applied to any automaker that doesn’t make the CAFE cut – the mandatory minimum “fleet average” MPG, which is currently 35.5 MPG – but also that these fines will be applied retroactively – to the 2015 and 2016 model year – as well as to future model years?
That’s two full model years before the 35.5 MPG mandatory went into effect – and tens of millions of dollars in fines, just because.
Dirty pool, as Gomez used to say.
But apparently, it’s ok when Uncle does it.
And it’s not a proposal. It’s a fatwa. Done deal.
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A “notice” was published in the July 5 Federal Register simply announcing Uncle’s decision (see here).
Technically, it is NHTSA’s decision.
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NHTSA – the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – is one of the many federal regulatory “agencies” (as they are innocuously styled) that operates as a legislature. It issues “rulings” that have the force of law, even though no one elected NHTSA or the bureaucrats within. What happens is that Congress passes a vague law – in this case, the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, way back in 1975 – which alphabet agencies like NHTSA (and EPA) are then given free reign to interpret.
This little shuck-and-jive allows Congress to take Grand Stands (we are saving energy!) without being held accountable for the specifics (new cars must average 35.5 MPG – headed to 54.5 MPG) while enabling unelected bureaucracies to impose the specifics (you will be forced to pay heavy fines if those “targets” aren’t met) without any fear of being held accountable.
It’s a slick con.
Your congressman or senator can get claps on the campaign trail hollering about the importance of more “efficient” cars. No one demands specifics from him. Later on, you read that a bureaucrat whose name you probably never heard – and whom you’ll never be given the opportunity to vote out of office – has decided to interpret the law passed by your congressman or senator. More “efficient” cars now mean that every new car will average 35.5 MPG or else you’ll be hit with a fine.
That’s right – you.
And me and everyone else who buys the cars. The “gas guzzler” fines applied for not meeting the decreed CAFE mandatory minimums are simply folded into the price of the car you just bought.
Or did you think the automakers would simply absorb the fines as a kind of penance?
Now the fines are to be tripled – and applied retroactively.
The rate goes up from $5.50 to $14 for each 0.1 MPG that any automaker falls short of the “target,” as Uncle innocuously styles it. In fact, it is a mandate. And the mandate just got a lot more expensive. Possibly catastrophically so.
Which may be on purpose.
