On Tuesday, 19 May an unlikely alliance was forged when President Obama announced the new US standards for fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions for the auto industry. As President Obama stood on the White House lawn speaking to the press about the new standards, behind him stood a group that included auto manufacturers, as well as labor and environmental advocates. A group many thought to be, by definition, in direct opposition to one another.
For years the debate has bounced between environmental activists who believed the well-being of the planet should be put above profits and the auto industry that sited free markets and the rights to run a profitable business. The debate had settled that the two sides were irreconcilable. Making cars that were easier on the environment would, by definition, be too expensive and would cripple the auto industry.
The new standards will apply to all vehicles sold in the US beginning in 2016. The standards include a minimum 35.5 MPG rating and a 30% decrease, or 900 million tons, in greenhouse gas emissions. The auto industry will begin implementing the new standards in 2012 with a 5% increase in efficiency every year until 2016 when the final requirements will be met.
President Obama argued throughout his campaign that environmental standards for the auto industry could, in fact, benefit all sides of the equation. The auto industry will be brought into the 21st century; innovation is after all the driver of new business. The consumer will benefit from lower energy costs, auto workers will benefit from an increase in jobs, and the environment will benefit from gentler vehicles. This concept sounded ideological to many. It seems, at least for now, President Obama has won one for the ideological side.
Obama on Tuesday said, “Everyone wins: Consumers pay less for fuel…The economy as a whole runs more efficiently by using less oil and producing less pollution, and companies like those here today have new incentives to create the technologies and the jobs that will provide smarter ways to power our vehicles.”
The White House estimates the new standards will increase the average price of a vehicle to $1,300 which the White house also estimates should be paid back over the life of the vehicle with $2,800 in gas savings.
Obama’s suggestion that innovation can only add to business and why not make that innovation focused on environmental responsibility seems rational enough. It seems the President, looking to find common ground on many of the day’s biggest debates, has found his first victory.
Too often debates that affect all citizens are simplified to the extremes and deemed irreconcilable. Each debate that is politicized is put at risk for being used as a pawn in the political game. Regardless of the side you stand on for any given debate, the environment and free market included, we should all agree that by allowing politicians to brand one side as their own submits the debate to the possibility that resolution is lost. What would politicians have if left without a drum to beat? Some issues, like the state of our planet, are too big and sometimes too simple to be left for politicians to dissect. Take this as evidence that perhaps many of the most divisive debates of our time could benefit from a little mutual respect and common sense and a lot less politics.
