New CAFE Mandates Harm Consumers

WASHINGTON D.C. — IER Director of Regulatory Affairs Daniel Simmons issued the following statement about today’s announcement by the Obama administration of a new corporate average fuel economy mandate (CAFE):

“This is an undemocratic, dangerous, and costly decision. The Obama administration’s heavy-handed regulation overrides American’s automobile preferences and imposes the choices of unelected bureaucrats on consumers.

Forcing ever-higher fuel economy mandates will lead to less safe cars and more automobile fatalities and injuries, according to leading safety experts. The problem with downsizing cars, according to the International Institute for Highway Safety, is that ‘smaller, lighter vehicles generally are less protective of their occupants in crashes.’

Because the fuel economy mandate drives up the price of cars and trucks, millions of hard-working Americans will be priced out of the market. Nearly 7 million Americans may not be able to afford a car or truck because of this ill-conceived decision.

The federal government has a responsibility to provide information about fuel economy, but not the responsibility to dramatically limit people’s automobile choices because of the administration’s anti-fossil fuel agenda.”

For more information on the effects of the CAFE mandate, click here.
To read the American Products and Power analysis of CAFE standards, click here.