April 1 - Obama administration’s EPA issued final rules forcing automakers to increase their vehicles’ fuel economy by 40% in five years. By 2015, the new 35.5 mpg EPA mandate goes into effect.
April 2 - The very same EPA favorably reviewed an ethanol fuel mandate that would force autos to get up to 5 percent worse fuel economy. By 2015, oil companies are mandated by Congress to double the amount of corn ethanol use to 15 billion gallons. The current mandate of a 10 percent ethanol mix in fuel won’t get us there, so the powerful corn lobby is demanding EPA increase the mandate to a 15% ethanol mix. Trouble is, a gallon of ethanol is 30% less efficient than a gallon of gas meaning that the more ethanol you mix in, the worse your gas mileage.
So while automakers are sweating under the federal gun to make increasingly fuel-efficient engines, the government is mandating they do it with less-efficient fuel.
~Henry Payne in NRO
HT: Matt B.
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