Often in the policy debates on government regulations, you will have free-market people decrying inefficient impediments to business, while the other side will tout the (alleged) benefits to the environment or whatever the social goal happens to be. Yet a new MIT study—from a group that is very sympathetic to carbon regulatory policies—documents how inefficient [...]
Cass Sunstein’s Garbage In, Garbage Out on Cost/Benefit Analysis
In a recent NYT op ed, Harvard Law professor and former Obama official Cass Sunstein cited Ronald Reagan, of all figures, as inspiration for more federal regulation on the transportation and energy sectors. Sunstein’s angle was to say that Reagan endorsed the cost/benefit analysis arguing for the US agreement to fight the “ozone hole,” [...]
December 4, 2012 | Bus Tour, Corporate Average Fuel Economy, Emissions Standards, Greenhouse Gases, News
More Scare Tactics on Climate Regulations
Bjorn Lomborg has a great article in Foreign Policy walking through the problems with a major new study warning of the need for government action on climate change in order to avoid millions (!) of deaths. Lomborg’s critique shows how the climate change debate, especially as it’s reported in the major media, is full [...]
David Kreutzer on EPA and Oil Externalities
Sometimes in their zeal to exaggerate the “social benefits” of one of its programs, the number-crunchers at government agencies will stoop to absurd arguments that end up coming back to bite them. The Heritage Foundation’s David Kreutzer recently caught a great example of this, concerning the NHTSA’s and EPA’s analysis [pdf] of its new [...]
October 9, 2012 | Corporate Average Fuel Economy, News, Threats
“A Refinery Rescue Reconsidered”
The incredible people we’ve met out on the American Products American Power bus tour know that you’re not a hero for calling the doctor after deliberately breaking someone’s legs. But that’s what the Obama Administration effectively did by driving a refinery out of business with regulations and then calling in a rescue operation. As [...]
September 19, 2012 | Corporate Average Fuel Economy, News, Renewable Fuel Standard, Threats, Tier 3 Standards
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 [...]
August 28, 2012 | Corporate Average Fuel Economy, News, Threats
New Congressional report exposes the fact that fuel economy mandates are ideologically driven and will put Americans’ safety at risk
For years we at the Institute for Energy Research have highlighted the problems with the Obama administration’s corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) mandate. We have written comments to the administration (here and here) and explained how raising the fuel economy standard will reduce safety, price drivers out of the market, and reduce automobile choice and [...]
August 10, 2012 | Corporate Average Fuel Economy, Emissions Standards, News, Renewable Fuel Standard, Threats
ISSA REPORT: ‘DISTURBING, BUT NOT SURPRISING
WASHINGTON D.C. — IER President Thomas Pyle issued the following statement upon today’s release of the House Oversight Committee report, entitled “A Dismissal of Safety, Choice, and Cost: The Obama Administration’s New Auto Regulations.” The investigation — led by Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) — reveals how White House officials misled the American public and [...]
August 10, 2012 | Corporate Average Fuel Economy, Emissions Standards, News, Threats
Low Carbon Fuel Standards Will Raise Fuel Prices
Recognizing that American motorists will reject any policies that raise fuel prices, the people pushing new regulations on the energy sector are trying to have their cake and eat it too. For example, a new report [.pdf] claims that a national Low Carbon Fuel Standard would not only reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but it [...]
July 19, 2012 | Corporate Average Fuel Economy, Emissions Standards, News, Renewable Fuel Standard, Threats
NRDC Jumps for Joy Over Court Win for EPA
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) was ecstatic over the recent appellate court ruling, upholding the EPA’s power to regulate carbon dioxide emissions under the Clean Air Act. Yet the NRDC’s description misleads the innocent reader on several crucial points. Contrary to their claims, federal regulations in the energy and transportation sectors won’t help [...]
July 6, 2012 | Corporate Average Fuel Economy, Greenhouse Gases, News
