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Jewish World Review April 27, 2012/ 5 Iyar, 5772 Obama and company are pushing hard on the pedal for deadlier cars By Deroy Murdock
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | As Washington keeps yanking money from Americans' wallets, car prices are set to rise beyond the reach of low-income drivers. And from there, things grow deadly. Blame a regulatory regime called Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) standards. Congress enacted these mandates in 1975. Washington generally has hiked CAFE standards in an ongoing effort to boost automobile efficiency. Lacking magic wands, car manufacturers spend money to obey these laws. And then -- surprise! -- up go sticker prices. The National Automobile Dealers Association calculated April 12 that a Chevrolet Aveo, the most affordable vehicle it studied, would climb in price from $12,700 to $15,700 by 2025. This $3,000 hike (in 2010 dollars) would prevent 6.8 million humble drivers from qualifying for car loans. "Fuel economy improvements must be affordable," Ford dealer Don Chalmers of New Mexico told journalists at the estimate's unveiling. "If my customers can't buy what I've got to sell, there are no savings at the gas pump and there is no environmental benefit." Is this what EPA chief Lisa Jackson calls "environmental justice?" Team Obama is fueling these anticipated price hikes by boosting CAFE standards from 35.5 miles per gallon in 2016 to 54.5 mpg by 2025. As they have for 37 years, car companies will follow these new rules by making cars thinner and lighter. Smaller, slighter vehicles get better mileage. But that hardly matters when a car smacks into a sycamore or slams head on into another vehicle. That's when most drivers would trade lower mpg for protective layers of thick steel. The laws of physics are stubbornly impervious to Obama's green slogans, no matter how abrasively he shouts them. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety concluded in 2007 that "none of the 15 vehicles with the lowest driver death rates is a small model. In contrast, 11 of the 16 vehicles with the highest death rates are mini or small models." "Fuel-standard lethality is as obvious as a smashed windshield," J.R. Dunn observed in The American Thinker. He carefully tracks CAFE's mayhem. "According to the Brookings Institution," Dunn wrote, a 500-pound "weight reduction of the average car increased annual highway fatalities by 2,200-3,900 and serious injuries by 11,000 and 19,500 per year. USA Today found that 7,700 deaths occurred for every mile per gallon gained in fuel economy standards." "How many deaths have resulted?" Dunn wondered. "Depending on which study you choose, the total ranges from 41,600 to 124,800. To that figure we can add between 352,000 and 624,000 people suffering serious injuries, including being crippled for life. ... Fuel standards have become one of the major causes of death and misery in the United States -- and one almost completely attributable to human stupidity and shortsightedness." Focus briefly on the tears and tombstones behind these casualty figures. Most of these injuries involved major pain and hardship. Nearly each one of these CAFE-caused deaths featured crying loved ones, a casket, and someone inside it who probably made people smile just days earlier. The only good news here is that road deaths have fallen lately, but for other reasons. Says Dr. Soumi Eachempati, chief of trauma services at Manhattan's Weill Cornell Medical Center: "I feel the recent decreases in fatality data are due to many safety measures including better airbags, more states having seat belt laws, higher seat belt compliance, more strict drunk driving laws, better trauma care, better EMS, more traffic congestion in certain areas, and what some feel are safer road conditions." But rather than leave bad enough alone, Obama and company clamp down, ever harder. Strengthening CAFE standards by 53.5 percent by 2025 likely will yield deadlier cars. Airbags will do only so much while surrounded by materials that recall aluminum siding. Before Washington sends additional Americans to early graves, Team Obama should step off the gas pedal and ponder the physicist who wrote Traffic Safety. Dr. Leonard Evans was perfectly clear: "CAFE kills, and higher CAFE standards kill even more."
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. Comment by clicking here. Deroy Murdock is a columnist with Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.
• 04/20/12: We don't need no stinkin' budget? • 04/14/12: New Reasons to Hate Obamacare • 04/06/12: Team Obama plays energy policy for laughs • 03/30/12: Twitchy Dems need to let workers put tax-cut money in retirement funds • 03/23/12: Why not $100-an-hour minimum wage? • 03/15/12: The real (high) cost of Obama's health care act • 03/09/12: Race-baiting Dems oppose voter ID • 03/02/12: Forget kids --- today's debt hurts adults • 02/24/12: Dems arise against Obamacare • 02/17/12: The voting dead are understated • 02/10/12: Holder takes on 'racist' photo-ID cards: Prejudice is widespread --- even Obama backed them • 02/03/12: On tax plans, Gingrich trumps Romney • 01/27/12: Photo IDs can protect elections, let dead rest • 01/20/12: Romney runs hot and cold on global warming • 01/13/12: Economic freedom declines in U.S. • 01/06/12: Time to yank off Mitt's mask • 12/23/11: Boehner hands Dems a gift • 12/15/11: The U.S. could learn much from Hong Kong • 12/09/11:$687 billion is available to Congress free of strings • 12/02/11: Obama criticizes Wall Street but takes money from it • 11/18/11: Puerto Rico shows Washington the way • 11/11/11: Take heed, America: In Ohio even left-wing unionists voted to repeal ObamaCare • 10/28/11: Thanks, Netanyahu, for surge of hardened terrorists • 10/24/11:The Obama Spend-O-Rama • 10/17/11: Cain stakes his viable claim just by showing up • 10/07/11: Green jobs are national scandal • 10/04/11: Obama proudly declares class war • 09/23/11: Obama wrong about ‘Do-Nothing’ Congress • 09/16/11: Obama needs Ryan's vision on jobs • 09/09/11: Reaganomics trounces Obamanomics • 09/02/11: Labor leaders to Obama: Stop killing jobs • 08/26/11: Pro-market Perry vaults over Romney in GOP race • 08/19/11: Some rich Americans will not rest until Washington boosts their taxes • 08/12/11: Hope, change and free birth control for all • 08/05/11: Debt deal does virtually nothing • 07/21/11: Dems pro-choice on abortion but little else • 07/15/11: Debt deception: If only Dems were honest and GOPers were courageous • 07/08/11: Congress' war on light bulb blows up
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Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||||
