EPA: It's For Your Own Good

New mandates flying out of the offices of the EPA in Washington will have profound impacts on the future vehicles we drive and how much we pay for personal transportation and the cost of transporting goods. First to arrive from the Obama administration was the doubling of the CAFE standard for light trucks and automobiles, followed by the recently announced mandated 15 percent increase in efficiency for large trucks and 18-wheelers.

The resolve of the Obama administration to dictate the future of transportation in America has not changed, but the marketing message has. Global warming is conspicuously absent or downplayed in the political messaging accompanying these massive changes is transportation policy because the scare mongering it comes with is increasingly a non-starter with the American public. The new message from the feds: trust us these new mandates will save you money — this from a government that has proven incapable of balancing its own budget.  

The EPA is apparently convinced they know better than the trucking companies and builders of large truck engines how to save the industry money through increased fuel economy mandates. EPA officials must consider executives of those industries to be either ignorant or intentionally operating against their own best interests.

The arrogance of EPA officials seems to know no bounds. As government mandates replace competitive forces in the market place the American consumer will pay the price through higher costs and less consumer choice, resulting in the continuing downward spiraling of the economy. We can expect more central planning from government bureaucrats over every aspect of our lives until voters demand their elected representatives stop the excesses of an administrative state that is out of control. Let us hope that is sooner rather than later.