Trump's automatic broadcast plan is full of faulty logic

There was a Years ago, when cars used gasoline like beer, teenagers drove them on Friday night, and Detroit automakers boasted about the ever-increasing power and speed of their cars. . Since then, cars have become safer, cleaner and more efficient, mainly because of Washington's stricter standards.

According to some experts, a new proposal from the Trump administration could put an end to this half century of progress in vehicles by shrugging off the growing risk of climate change and energy efficiency standards designed to combat it. . The White House wants to freeze future automotive emissions standards and ban California from tightening its own rules on carbon emissions from vehicles.

First, look at the numbers. A low-profile report released by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) predicts that the Earth's temperature will increase by around 21 ° C by 2100, assuming little or nothing is done to reverse emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The prevailing climate agreements in Paris call on nations to commit to keeping global warming below 3.6 ° F (2 ° C) by the end of the century.

The climate change scenario of the Trump administration would likely imply a catastrophic melting of the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, causing a sea level rise that would flood the lower coastal areas of Maine to Texas – not to mention the oceans warmer ones that could spawn ever stronger hurricanes along the pockets of domestic drought and the collapse of agriculture in many areas.

The NHTSA report released these catastrophic figures to argue that automobile and truck exhaust emissions after 2020 will have such a small global impact on greenhouse gases that it's not worth the the need to tighten the wrath of the Detroit automakers. "What they are saying is that we will go to hell anyway, what difference will it make if we go a little faster," says David Pettit, defense counsel for natural resources. "It's their theory of how they manage greenhouse gas emissions."

According to Pettit and others, the NHTSA report and the Trump administration's proposal to remove future exhaust emission standards would allow Detroit to build bigger, thirstier cars than those authorized by President Obama. Pettit notes that it has gone from driving a Chrysler 7 miles per gallon in the late 1960s to a Chevrolet Bolt today, largely because of the stricter federal standards that require automakers to sell clean cars alongside their SUVs and trucks.

The Trump administration has not only decided to tackle climate change, but added that continuing to increase fuel efficiency requirements would make the fleet safer, as people would continue to drive. older cars longer than otherwise. The argument advanced is that higher prices for more fuel efficient cars will deter consumers from buying new vehicles equipped with more advanced technology that also improves safety. But Giorgio Rizzoni, director of the Center for Automotive Research at Ohio State University, said the administration had problems. His study of the last 40 years concludes that safety and fuel consumption have increased simultaneously.

If Trump's rules of thumb are adopted, US buyers could end up with less technologically advanced vehicles than foreign buyers, says Austin Brown, executive director of the UC Davis Institute of Policy. for energy, the environment and the economy. "The cars would look the same on the outside, but they would burn more gas, cost more money and create more emissions," he says. Indeed, American cars with lower fuel standards will not be sold on world markets, he adds.

The Trump administration held public meetings on the proposal this week in Fresno, California; Dearborn, Michigan; and Pittsburgh. The deadline for written comments is 23 October.

Biggest cable stories