This blog contains posts and comments written by students in Dr. Tufte's economics classes at Southern Utah University.
3/31/2010
Health... Auto... What's Next?
In a recent article, it told of the new reversal on a 20 year ban that President Obama announced today. This would increase offshore drilling around the Gulf of Mexico. The EPA and Department of Transportation are expected to sign the final rule on Thursday, declaring new standards for the U.S. auto fleet. This bill forces U.S. automakers to produce vehicles that average 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016 and will start in 2012. How much will this cost the consumer? We all know that hybrid cars get better gas mileage, but they also cost thousands more. This bill by the EPA will raise the prices of cars forcing the average consumer to spend more money on something that might pay off over time. Here is my problem with this. We don’t want to pay the high price for oil that comes from the Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, so we decide to drill for our own oil. Sounds nice, but then U.S. automakers are forced to increase car standards that result in the consumer paying more anyway. Where is the savings? How can President Obama push for economic growth by regulating everything so tightly?
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4 comments:
I have long thought that all of the anti polution requirements are passing a little to easily, and that there should be more disclosure of cost to the public. If you ask a group of people to vote if they want cleaner air they will probably all vote yes, but if you tell them it will cost them several thousand dollars the next time they buy a car it will definatly change the outcome.
I am having a hard time getting info on how many car automakers are going to have to make that get 36 mpg. Even the best 6 seater hybrid get 27 thats a huge jump if all of the cars have to get that good of gas millage.
Here we go again. politicians play these games of political Russian Roulette all of the time. I think that Obama is just getting closer and closer to ending his own career. Politicians try so hard to be everybody's buddy. They would like to please everybody all of the time. One thing that really makes me mad is how politicians sign bills that do not begin until their first term is up. This way they need to be there to do the untangling to make things turn out right, or they let the next one come in and have the closet full of mistakes fall down on them. This is ridiculous, to make it 36 mpg, are they nuts? Most cars at their best can make the low 30's. Now, this might be a great thing for GM. The same people that put this into effect are the same ones that own GM. Seriously, the only way that we can finally stop paying for this company to survive is something like this. I also found this article that gives some varying views offshore drilling that was good.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/drill-obama-drill/?pagemode=print&scp=8&sq=Offshore%20drilling&st=cse
-2 on Luke for multiple spelling mistakes.
Elijah: all manufacturers will have to meet the requirements.
In practice, they meet these requirements by reducing vehicle weight, and by discounting vehicles with low weights. It doesn't have too much to do with efficiency: that tends to go into better horsepower (believe it or not).
This is all a huge mess produced by weak and muddy thinking. No one should care what share of our oil comes from overseas. What we should care about is that we make money enough on what we're good at to buy what we need. That hasn't been much of issue for the private sector.
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