Barack Obama Plans to Shut Down the Auto Industry
Smaller cars are less safe and anti-family. American families can’t fit all the car seats in small cars.
(Red State) - Citing two anonymous Obama administration officials, The New York Times reports that Obama will order the EPA to reconsider the Bush administration’s denial of a waiver to California that would allow the state to set its own standards. But it wouldn’t just be car crazy California setting its own standard. The worst-case scenario would see fifty states, each with its own standard. But many states will simply adopt whatever standard is decreed by California. Even if there were only a few standards among the fifty states, it would spell trouble for the automakers.
The idea of bailout money from the federal government being spent to meet a larger number of tighter state government standards because the federal government reversed a prior administration’s policy is such a twisted irony that it brings to mind Ronald Reagan’s famous words, “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.”
Automobile manufacturers will not have much time have to retool to begin building vehicles which meet the regulations, and they will have to quickly phase compliant models into their production schedules. Many of the emissions controls that will be required are outsourced from smaller parts suppliers, so there is a potential for a ripple effect here. The standards will not just affect Detroit’s automakers. Foreign manufacturers, many of them having problems of their own, will feel the pain also.
Audi, which had posted sales of over a million cars in 2008, its best year ever, recently announced plans to reduce hours at two of its plants, affecting 25,000 workers. BMW has cut 26,000 workers for two months at two of its factories, which will reduce production by 38,000 units. The company is also reducing hours at two other plants. Beemer’s stock price is down 49% over the past 12 months. Things are so bad at Nissan’s UK facility that the Japanese automaker has been forced to park unsold cars on its test track. All of the lot space at the factory is already full of cars for which there is more supply than demand.
This is the worst of times for such government-induced mayhem in the auto industry. If the bailout appeared to be a light at the end of the tunnel for car makers, the new regulations will morph it into an oncoming train.
(Red State) - Citing two anonymous Obama administration officials, The New York Times reports that Obama will order the EPA to reconsider the Bush administration’s denial of a waiver to California that would allow the state to set its own standards. But it wouldn’t just be car crazy California setting its own standard. The worst-case scenario would see fifty states, each with its own standard. But many states will simply adopt whatever standard is decreed by California. Even if there were only a few standards among the fifty states, it would spell trouble for the automakers.
The idea of bailout money from the federal government being spent to meet a larger number of tighter state government standards because the federal government reversed a prior administration’s policy is such a twisted irony that it brings to mind Ronald Reagan’s famous words, “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.”
Automobile manufacturers will not have much time have to retool to begin building vehicles which meet the regulations, and they will have to quickly phase compliant models into their production schedules. Many of the emissions controls that will be required are outsourced from smaller parts suppliers, so there is a potential for a ripple effect here. The standards will not just affect Detroit’s automakers. Foreign manufacturers, many of them having problems of their own, will feel the pain also.
Audi, which had posted sales of over a million cars in 2008, its best year ever, recently announced plans to reduce hours at two of its plants, affecting 25,000 workers. BMW has cut 26,000 workers for two months at two of its factories, which will reduce production by 38,000 units. The company is also reducing hours at two other plants. Beemer’s stock price is down 49% over the past 12 months. Things are so bad at Nissan’s UK facility that the Japanese automaker has been forced to park unsold cars on its test track. All of the lot space at the factory is already full of cars for which there is more supply than demand.
This is the worst of times for such government-induced mayhem in the auto industry. If the bailout appeared to be a light at the end of the tunnel for car makers, the new regulations will morph it into an oncoming train.
posted by BP News Bureau | 12:24 PM
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