Pruitt Out Of Gas

While the rest of the world is maximizing fuel economy in their cars and continuing to invest in the technologies that can make cars even more efficient, Environmental Destruction Agency administrator Scott (where are all the rhymes-with-glass-poles in this country named Scott?) Pruitt is rolling back gas mileage standards from the Obama administration that would have doubled corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) numbers in the automakers' lineup by 2025.  He says it's impractical to expect that from automobile manufacturers.

Ahem . . . sure, if you want to keep selling SUVs and pickup trucks.  The government is just pandering to American car manufacturers who don't want to take the time or the money to invest in smaller, leaner cars, the sort of cars Europeans have bought for decades - some of which have been made by General Motors, before it sold Opel and Vauxhall to PSA, and Ford.  And despite some decent fuel-sipping cars, along with electric cars and hybrids, the two manufacturers really don't have their hearts in more ethical vehicles, when gas-guzzling pickups and SUVs bring in higher profits because it takes so much raw material to make them. And a nation of consumers brainwashed by clever advertising, folks who love the power and feel of a big vehicle, keep buying them.  I've only known one person who ever needed an SUV, and she grows her own food and keeps a coop of chickens.  She needs a big vehicle to transport her feed and seed. 

Gone are the days when automakers could make the size of a subcompact an asset in These States.  Even Volkswagen, who once urged car buyers to think small and consider a Beetle, is pushing big SUVs in America now.  We are told that the automakers who do business in this country are merely responding to consumer demands, but much of that demand is fueled, no pun intended, by government activity - not just lower CAFE standards but subsidized gasoline, which is why it's so inexpensive and why oil companies are so highly profitable.  And Scott Pruitt, a fossil-fuel energy producer's wet dream with eyes, is happy to keep the system rigged against small cars.

Pruitt's time as America's chief environmental outlaw maybe over, though, as a lobbyist for a liquefied natural gas producer has given the EDA (formerly EPA) chief a sweetheart deal in the form of low rent on a condominium apartment in Washington even as he's been racking up expensive travel bills at the taxpayers' expense.  Trump is happy with the job Pruitt has been doing to enable private industry to run roughshod over a land, air and water, but he may have to let him go for his bad press and for casting the White House in a negative light.  Don't start doing backflips if Pruitt leaves the administration soon; Trump will simply find someone worse to run the environmental office.

Who could be worse?  I don't let myself think about it.

In a very related story, General Motors announced it's discontinuing the Chevrolet Sonic subcompact while Ford is considering discontinuing the Fiesta in the U.S. market.  Could this be because they don't have to offer smaller cars to meet the now-discarded fuel economy standards Obama issued?  Gee, ya think? >:-(   

Trump Autotopia

Donald Trump swaggered into Michigan yesterday to talk about the American auto industry - one of many subjects in which he is no way familiar.

He announced that he was going to review and likely roll back corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards that sets a benchmark of 54.5 miles a gallon by 2025.  This means less incentive for automakers to develop hybrid vehicles, and electric and fuel-cell models, as well as cars like the Chevrolet Volt (ironically, one of the many cars Trump looked at while in Michigan), and, oh yes, less of an incentive to produce small cars.

My next car may have to be a gas guzzler, because that's all I'll be able to buy.

The domestic automakers are, of course, pleased that the CAFE standards are likely to be reversed, because that means they'll be able to avoid responsibility for making environmentally friendly products and be able to continue making cheap, crude SUVs and pickups and underdeveloped sedans rather than come up with more innovative cars that can compete in the market more effectively.

"There is no more beautiful sight than an American-made car," said Trump, who's obviously never seen a Porsche.  He promised that Detroit would "once again shine with industrial might" and decried the "massive shipments" of foreign cars dumped on American consumers.  Oh yeah, while in Michigan, he'd had a round-table discussion with car company executives that, in addition to General  Motors CEO Mary Barra and Ford CEO Mark Fields, also included Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of the Italian company that owns Chrysler (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles), as well as Nissan North America Chairman Jose Munoz (Nissan - a Japanese company owned by Renault of France) and Jerry Flannery of Hyundai (a South Korean company).  Trump said of the foreign automakers with plants in the United States, "We love them too."  Not too many of them have American facilities in Michigan, though. 

Trump was essentially promising to bring the auto industry in the U.S. back to 1950s levels, even though back then there had been little industrial competition from overseas and looser regulations that discouraged continuous improvement and encouraged flashy, superficial model changes - thus, Detroit ended up using rudimentary technology that persisted will into the 1980s.  He also said that the assault on the American auto industry is over, leading me to wonder what he was talking about.  Because as I recall, it was Barack Obama who saved GM and Chrysler by investing taxpayers' money in them (which got paid back to the government) and helping them through bankruptcy, preserving thousands of auto jobs and many other jobs connected to the auto industry. 

Trump also promised that, under his Presidency, Detroit would become "the car capital of the world again."  Umm, didn't he realize that, again, Chrysler is a subsidiary of an Italian company and that, umm, GM just sold all of its European assets to a car company based in France?  Is that how Detroit becomes the car capital of the world - with Ford being the only U.S.-based car company having something resembling a truly global presence?

One thing is for certain - given Trump's history in business, we should be glad that he never ran a car company.  And I'm sorry Tesla founder Elon Musk - a South African immigrant - can't run for President.  Because he's a CEO I'd vote for!