New EPA Standards from DoT Released

The Department of Transportation (DoT) released the new combined fuel efficiency standard for 2011, raising it to 27.3 from the 2010 numbers that were 2 gallons lower.

This means that passenger cars will have to be at 30.2mpg while trucks, SUVs and other larger vehicles will have to be at 24.1mpg. A 2007 energy bill signed into law requires that this 27.3 average be at 35mpg in 2020 and this new 2011 standard is an incremental step towards that.

Obama, of course, wants to one-up that by pushing the standard to 40mpg by 2022.

All of this sounds great to reasonable environmentalists, but the hard-core "bicycle or die" types are screaming that it's "not enough." In my mind, this is already too much. Why is it the federal government's job to set these standards again? Can't the market do this on its own? If people truly demand this kind of change towards efficiency, they'd push the market in that direction without government intervention.

But hey, the EPA and DoT can't collect fines (read: taxes) without this kind of legislation and we all know that larger government is happier government.

Read the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's press release here, then wonder why EPA standards have anything to do with "traffic safety" and chuckle at the stupidity that is bureaucracy.