Will EPA End California "Tax" on Everyone Else's Automobiles? - Granite Grok

Will EPA End California “Tax” on Everyone Else’s Automobiles?

Green Car

For years California’s higher mileage requirements for passenger vehicles have forced manufacturers to offset those costs with higher prices for car buyers all across the nation. But the EPA is dumping Obama CAFE standards for model years 2022-2025 defaulting to the current average of 34.5 mpg.

A legal fight is expected from CAFE-Clingers and Brownistas in Kalinfornistan.

California is not going to take this lightly, they are ready for a fight. The State of California has had a special waiver under the 1970 Clean Air Act, which allowed them to enforce stronger air pollution standards than those of the federal government.

But as Lauren Fix also points out in Forbes,

All automakers have to realize that they can’t allow California to de-facto tax the other states just because they want people living elsewhere to foot their subsidized EVs. By setting minimum quotas on EVs, it’s a de-facto tax on the automaker. At a minimum, someone living in Kansas or Florida should not have to pay for this, which is what the situation is right now.

How do we get out from under the influence of California on the price of cars in Virginia, Montana, or New Hampshire?

A solution might include automakers imposing an extra $2,000 or whatever per automobile in California. This would lower the cost of vehicles in other states. Why haven’t automakers done this in the past? Because the automakers should not and cannot absolve themselves of changing their pricing to reflect such individual state conditions. The automakers should be easily able to handle this issue. They price a vehicle differently in Norway than in Sweden, in turn different than in Switzerland and in Russia.

It is unfair and unjust for one state to hold the rest of us fiscally hostage. Democrats will object because that’s the basis for their rule. California Democrats will object because they will need that model in place to bail out their state, which has been on a historical collision course with reality for years.

I’ll add that I’ve no issue with automakers deciding to build fleets with whatever average fuel economy they want., meaning whatever suits the whims and needs of consumers.

That’s not been the case for years, and California is as much to blame as anybody. The EPA should end the waiver and force California to work out a deal with automakers for their unique requirements, thus baring all the costs themselves for those unique modifications.

Or not.

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