(FiveNation.com)- Last Friday, the Department of Transportation announced that it is imposing higher fuel efficiency standards on gas-powered vehicles that were cut during the Trump administration.
Under the boosted efficiency standards, automakers would be required to produce cars and light trucks that average 49 miles per gallon by 2026, 9 miles per gallon higher than the standard set under the Trump administration.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters on Friday that the future of the US economy can’t be “decided in oil company board rooms.” He boasted that the higher fuel efficiency standards would save 234 billion gallons of oil by 2050 while moving the US “into a less dependent future.” Buttigieg also claimed that forcing higher fuel efficiency standards would prevent 5.5 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide from reaching the earth’s atmosphere by 2050.
The administration is also claiming that the increase would save consumers $1,400 over the lifetime of the vehicle. Money that will no doubt be lost by the higher cost of said vehicle. But let’s not quibble.
The administration’s objective is clear.
By making gas-powered vehicles more expensive to make and to buy, the administration is hoping to leave consumers with no choice but “clean energy alternatives.”
And even during his press conference last week, Buttigieg made it clear that was the plan:
BUTTIGIEG: “Until we achieve a form of energy independence that is based on clean energy,” get used to price hikes. pic.twitter.com/UMWBrVPe9R
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 3, 2022
Last year the EPA reversed the Trump administration’s relaxing of regulations on how much carbon dioxide cars can emit. President Biden has also demanded that 50 percent of all vehicle sales in the United States be electric by 2030.
The goal of these regulations is to force automakers to produce more electric vehicles by making it harder for them to meet the standards imposed on gas-powered vehicles.
So they will punish car manufacturers. They will punish oil and gas producers. And ultimately, they will punish American consumers. All to turn their Green dreams into a reality.
None of this will be a boost to the economy. But economic prosperity and growth take a back seat to Climate cultists in the White House.
