Emissions standards for some, novelty American flags for others?
Not even. Two takes on disappointment.
Disappointment, not surprise, marks the EPA’s denial of a waiver that would have granted California the right to regulate its own emissions standards. Part of a larger climate change action plan, and set to be adopted by seventeen other states upon approval, California’s GHG emission reduction strategy would have imposed harsher regulations on automotive manufacturers.
First question, how big of a financial hit would it be to the automotive industry if California’s standards were adopted, as opposed to the slower federal CAFE stadards? What’s the measure of the additional environmental and social damage done if we wait thirteen years to adopt a 35mpg (or should it be gpm?) standard, instead of only 5? I assume this cost-benefit analysis favors the few, wouldn’t you?
Second, how weak, nearsighted, selfish, and contemptible will we look to our children, children’s children, etc. (who will undoubtedly bear the environmental/social cost of the aforementioned calculation), if we wait around for the corporate and government climate change stalemate circlejerk to finish before enacting meaningful changes?