Chinese Best Obama on Fuel-efficiency Standards

Source:
The New York Times

For all you environmentalist types out there who are praising President Obama's recent announcement about plans to introduce tougher fuel economy standards on the automotive industry, you can just stop right there. China, a country not known for strong environmentalist tendencies, has been preparing to introduce a plan that will improve fuel economy by 18 percent by the year 2015. Obama's plan only requires a minimum fleet-wide fuel economy of 35.5 mpg by 2016. Chinese automobiles are already more fuel-efficient than that set goal. To be fair, Chinese automobiles tend to be smaller than those in the U.S. and the motives behind this new plan are geared towards reducing China's dependence on foreign oil than reducing greenhouse gases.

Regardless, this raises a few questions about the seriousness of the Obama Administration on fuel-efficiency and energy. First of all, why are we not aiming for higher goals on fuel-efficiency? For a candidate who claimed he wanted the United States to lead the world in reducing greenhouses gases and introducing alternative energy sources, this 35.5 mpg goal appears weak. Why not take more drastic action if the issues of climate change and dependence on foreign oil are so pressing?

Unfortunately, Obama is probably not to blame. The influence of the automobile industry lobbying on legislators would prevent major changes in fuel economy standards from becoming law. Also, drastic changes could severely impact the already unstable automakers who are functioning of government bailout funds. These are issues the Obama Administration has most likely realized themselves, so it is no wonder why this planis not as stringent as the Chinese plan. It should be noted that the Chinese also do not have as many obstacles in the way of changing these kinds of policies and can more easily set tougher standards. Th Obama plan is probably meant to be a symbolic gesture that shows the administrations' committment to improving fuel economy and will most likely act as a a stepping stone for more stringent standards in the future once the auto industry is able to adapt to the new standards.

It will be interesting to see if the Chinese plan influences more legislators to favor tougher standards as a way of competing with Chinese innovation. I would love to see this become the 21st Century equivalent of the "Space Race". Instead of competing for techonolgical supremacy with a hostile Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War we would be competing with a far less hostile China, which is heavily invested in our own economy, for supremacy in automotive fuel economy. Of course, this time there is no moon to be reached; just a planet to be saved.