Mileage Standards on the Road to Hell

How do-able are the new CAFE standards imposed by the Obama administration?

We are supposed to hit 39-mpg for the average automaker fleet by 2015. That's six years from now. It took the European Union 30 years to hit that mark, and if I'm not mistaken at no time during that time were they facing the worst economy since the Great Depression.

That doesn't sound like a do-able thing, but the automakers -- now under the thumb of the federal government -- are maintaining silence. When socialist dictates trump the free market, we ignore rationality.

Henry Payne (Planet Gore/NRO) has an interesting observation:

Gas-engine fuel efficiency gains generally average 1.5 percent per year, but achieving the 2015 standard would mean a whopping 6.6 percent increase annually. This means that manufacturers will have to equip cars with alternative engine technologies like diesel or hybrid, increasing vehicle costs by $2,500 to $8,000 per vehicle, say engineers. Yet a “senior administration official” simply pulls a number out of the hat and says the cost will be “only” $1,300 per car.

Whether $1,300 or $8,000, consumers won’t be buying. A 2008 Center for Automotive Research survey found consumers unwilling to spend more than $200 extra on cars to have environmental improvements.

[SNIP]

Americas’ personal transportation market is no longer governed by consumer choice but by government edict.

Where in the U.S. Constitution does it give the federal government the authority to do this? Yes, I know that we've allowed federal intervention on CAFE standards for years, but the question remains: Where does this power originate? Name that Section or Amendment?

I, as an individual, do not have the right to tell you what kind of mileage your car should achieve. If I do not have this right, I cannot "lend" it to the federal government to exercise on my behalf.

There are no "group" rights. I know that will shock some of you, but it's true. Read your copy of the Constitution. Oh, you don't have one?

That explains a lot.

Unless the people of this nation figure out this one simple fact of constitutional life, we will continue to see a bigger, more powerful government step in to more and more industries and facets of life.

And our quality of life will go straight to hell.