Just unbelievable. Over at Treehugger (naturally), there’s a post “Biden and Automakers Agree on 50% EVs by 2030—Are the Regulations Tough Enough?”
This is driven by the news that Biden, unilaterally has issued an Executive Order that is demanding that the automobile industry’s output of new vehicles be 50% Electric Vehicles (EVs) by 2030. Of course, the Eco-Socialists aren’t even happy over this as denoted by the prose of the post, as well as the comments (reformatted, emphasis mine).
Admire the chutzpah of the subtitle:
The administration also wants automakers to raise gas mileage and cut tailpipe pollution by model year 2026.
And it’s off to the races:
Thursday was a big day for clean cars. Leaders of the Big Three American automakers—Mary Barra from General Motors, Jim Farley from Ford, Mark Stewart from Stellantis—stood shoulder-to-shoulder with President Joe Biden as he set a goal of 50% electric cars by 2030.
So a single guy, whose only role is to ENFORCE the Law and not to MAKE Law, has just done that. This is just like Obama’s DACA – had no authorizing legislation to basically make illegal aliens free – he even admitted it a number of times before just doing it. NH Governor Chris Sununu took this path, under the guise of the WuFlu emergency, and not only took it upon himself to be the head of the Executive Branch but also the Legislature and the Judiciary. Biden even did this with the eviction moratorium as the Courts said that the CDC has no Powers in this matter as there was no authorizing legislation giving that to it. Biden SAID he didn’t have that Power – and then, even after SCOTUS agreed with the lower Courts, he extended it ANYWAYS and challenged the Supreme Court to stop him (after stating that it would take months to do so). Rulers, not “elected representatives merely governing“.
Anyways, back to the post:
The automakers’ record in this area is a bit spotty. Although they united around the Obama initiative in 2012 for 54.5 mpg fleet average by 2025, some of them changed course when the wind blew in former President Donald Trump. With CEOs nodding, he rolled back the standards to the point where the fleet would average 29 mpg in 2026.
The Trump administration, and the automakers, appeared to be denying something rather obvious: China and Europe were electrifying rapidly, backed by regulations and non-negotiable demands. And although the modern lithium-ion battery pack was largely researched and developed in the U.S., Biden pointed out in his speech that 80% of the capacity to make them is now in China. “We have to move and move fast,” he said. “China is leading the race.” Biden’s approach has been to focus heavily on the American jobs that come with making EVs and batteries here.
Yeah, how well has Industrial Policy worked here in America where our DNA is that of the entrepreneur instead of by Govt fiat. Obama showed us that in spades as billions were wasted as he became a shining example of why the Great Mind Fallacy exists (re: a single person, or even committees of people, can’t know the Economy as well as those millions of people making billions of economic decisions for themselves do).
Once again, we see the Environmentalists deciding that they have the Right to force us to behave and force us to accept their “utopia”. They have no problem in using Government to take away Choice from a Free People. Sadly, we are losing the abilities to make our own choices on what is best for us versus what others KNOW what is best for us.
Sad – just recently, California, in its rush to divest itself of fossil fuel based electrical generation plants (and the lone nuke plant that made 10% of the State’s electricity) told its serfs residents to not charge their EVs (like Teslas, Bolts, and Prius’s) because of the heat wave, the wildfires, and of course, no juice in the system. For which Govt blamed the generating companies instead of their own stupidity in making Laws to move to “clean” energy (of COURSE, not having any power makes you automatically “clean”, right?).
But Eco-Socialists have got to be Socialists and they have no problem in telling others how to live their lives and love it when they get behind the wheel of Govt Powers. And here in the US, Following the Law (in this case, the Constitution) seems, more and more, to be rather passe and I griped about it:
And not a single person here has thought “Where does even a President have the Power within an Executive Order to completely revamp an entire industry on his own say so”?
Regardless of who is President, if the Legislative process (which is empowered to actually make Law and a President only carries it out) has been sidestep, has the US devolved back to the Divine Right of Kings (just a different title)?
Folks here may only be concentrating on the “result” – I’m betting most of you haven’t realized what the real result is if this is allowed to stand.
Many folks here couldn’t stand Trump – I can imagine the furor if he had done what Biden just did.
Oh wait – we did. Over a mere showerhead.
And that was when Trump did an E.O. that would remove some of the regulations (not Law, regulations) concerning how many gallons/minute of water could flow through said showerheads.
No, they don’t know what the real result is – the furtherance of moving from The Rule of Law to a Strong Man Rule. They certainly accused Trump (and most other Republican Presidents) of this – but it’s the Democrat ones that actually do so. But they don’t care. At all.
One of the rather decent folks decided to push back:
Bob Baal: Come on – there is nothing actually new here – we have been doing this in one form or another since we have had industries to do it to. You could argue that what is going on here is one of the reasons that we invented governments in the first place.
In this particular instance we have been setting conditions on the automotive industry since we started issuing safety requirements and pollution regulations. This is just the latest instance – no matter which party is in power this sort of thing will continue. ” if the Legislative process (which is empowered to actually make Law and a President only carries it out) has been sidestep,”
It clearly hasn’t – it’s just given you a result that you don’t like.
And he was wrong twice over:
No, it’s not the result – it’s the process that’s broken. And in America, the Constitution was created to keep such decisions by one Branch from happening. The Executive Branch is not supposed to create Law – that’s the Legislture’s Power. An E.O. is only supposed to affect the workings of the Executive Branch.
Sadly, not enough folks understand basic Civics anymore – and only bad things can come of it when those we elect to govern refuse to Follow The Law themselves.
Governing is not Ruling (like the Royal Aristocracies) but it is Ruling that we are devolving to.
And for his believing that this is what Govt is supposed to do:
Now, I don’t about New Zealand but American Govt was certainly not formed along your thought line. Our Declaration of Independence from British King George makes it clear:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men
To secure Rights, not set industrial police or a lot of other things that people believe Govt is supposed to do. In fact, our Constitution was written to keep the Federal Government from doing lots of what it is doing anyways.
We can thank the Progressive / Socialist movement that started just before the 1900s for this fiasco.
But the Socialists here want the Power in and by any means possible to get the means to tell the rest of us what to do.
I know what I’m doing to resist and, hopefully, overcome it – what about you?