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> Do you suggest he should follow the example of more recent politicians and use his bully pulpit to tell the general population to go buy a $50k electric car
by danans 5y ago
> Do you suggest he should follow the example of more recent politicians and use his bully pulpit to tell the general population to go buy a $50k electric car
He should have punched up and told the auto industry to produce more efficient ICE cars and EVs to help regular Americans save money on gas. Instead, he weakened the CAFE standard [1].
And he should have advocated for more tax credits for lower income people to buy more efficient vehicles (paid for by higher taxes on high income people).
1. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/04/20060428-9.html https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/20...
- coredog64 5y agoCAFE is such a shitty law that the best thing you could do would be taking it behind the barn and shooting it. Rather than set a floor, it sets a ceiling. The artificial divide on fleets by where they are produced privileges UAW members over fuel economy and consumers. The class distinction ended moderately economical wagons for monster SUVs. And on and on and on. Kill it, sign a safety standards harmonization agreement with the EU and Japan, and ruthlessly prioritize making it possible for American consumers to buy the same models available in other markets where fuel economy is serious business.
- danans 5y agoCAFE might be overcomplicated, but it isn't like GW Bush or others in his party (or members of Congress from Michigan of either party) were proposing alternative laws like you suggest. Their goal was and to weaken whatever efficiency requirements there are, full stop. Even the Biden administration has taken a pretty gentle regulatory hand with the auto and fossil fuel industries considering their own goals on climate change, for presumably electoral reasons.