Today, the President, partly to take the focus off the debt limit and budgetary debate, has announced that automakers must hit a fuel efficiency of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. This is not a request, it is not a suggestion. It is policy.
Nowhere in the Constitution does it suggest that the President can makes laws or rules - in fact it says that he can't except for negotiating treaties.
The EPA, Energy, Homeland Security, NLRB, FAA, IRS, and so many other federal agencies - all housed within the Executive branch, routinely make regulations, mandates, and edicts which have the power of law but are blatantly unconstitutional.
Back to the mileage issue. Consumers don't want higher gas mileage. Last year, the Ford F-150 reportedly outsold all of the hybrids combined by over 2-1. In a free market system, consumers get to decide what they want. In a socialistic approach, the government tells people what they'll have and businesses must produce it.
Of course, more domestic gasoline and natural gas production would be a better place for emphasis.
In 2017 or 2018, the new rules will be evaluated to see if they can even be attained and if the desire is there to even have them.
This is more of a political statement right now than a reality. The automakers don't want it, but they have agreed - maybe feeling that it will all go away in a few years anyway. The consumers don't want it to any large degree. The hybrids account for less than 3% of total sales.
If the President wants to declare that this is what he'd like to see, fine. Policy, no.
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