HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner

White House Policy Reversal on Auto Standards Will Cost Jobs

On a day the Big Three automakers acknowledged the closure of nearly 1,000 car dealerships last year and that GM will cut 2,000 jobs in Michigan and Ohio, President Obama pushed forward with a plan which will allow California to exceed already strict Federal automobile emissions regulations and will certainly pave the way for other states to follow suit.  The result can only place additional burdens on the struggling American auto industry, which may now be forced to comply with a patchwork of conflicting and costly environmental standards that have less to do with protecting the environment than in securing the accolades of radical environmentalists.

Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) issued a statement:

The President’s action today is disappointing.  The effect of this policy will be to destroy American jobs at the very time government leaders should be working together to protect and create them.  Millions of American jobs will be placed in further jeopardy if automakers are forced to spend billions to comply with potentially dozens of different emissions standards in dozens of different states.

Rather than saving the American automobile industry, as the President claims, his policies will hamper the recovery of the Big Three.  Henry Payne at National Review Online notes that:

Detroit automakers estimate that meeting California’s edict would cost them $30.5 billion alone. With Detroit now on the federal dole, this expense will likely form the basis of further federal subsidies. For even though GM can only return to profitability (and repay its federal loans) by selling high-volume, gas-fueled vehicles like the Chevy Malibu and Chevy Tahoe, it will have to make more money-losing, electric plug-ins like the Chevy Volt (anticipated EPA rating of 100 mpg when it comes to market in 2010) to meet Golden State rules.

President Obama has vowed to govern from the center and put the interests of the country above the interests of narrow special-interest groups.  It’s still early in his presidency, obviously.  And as Leader Boehner has noted, Washington is a difficult town, and it won’t always be easy for the President to do this.  But it’s disappointing that in his first week in office, the President has taken at least two significant actions (the other being his reversal Friday of the Mexico City Policy, forcing taxpayers to pay for overseas abortions) that are out of step with the priorities of most Americans.

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