I must point out that I chastised the last administration and it's party in 2007/2008 when they rolled out the first wave of this crap. The nanny-state micromanagement of what we get to drive is a two-party problem. The left side of the aisle however tends to be more zealous about it.
Story:
TheMustangNews.com - Smoke 'em if you got em: Muscle cars are dead.
What is particularly egregious about this latest move is that the timing of it and the severity of it.
There is nothing wrong with high efficiency cars. That is NOT the problem. Hell, I drive a small diesel car that gets 40mpg for a daily driver. Got no issues with that.
What is wrong with all of this is that the automotive industry CANT AFFORD THIS RIGHT NOW. Two of the Big 3 are already bankrupt and may not survive. They might not even be here in 10 years. The government is bailing them out to the tune of tens of billions of our tax dollars. Of course the Fed is going to loan them MORE BILLIONS to meet the new rules they are forcing on them. Nice
For the administration in the middle of this crisis to then force them to ramp up new technology, re-organize their entire product plans, and to do it to a draconian level in only 5 years is just without logic, sense, and any level of "smart thinking" as Obama would put it.
It is akin to jumping in the middle of the D-Day landing and forcing all the troops to change to new weapons and take a class on using them all while the Nazi's are blowing the crap out of them on the beach.
Aside from all the ideological arguments most Americans can make for/against the higher CAFE and emissions standards, anyone with any sense has to agree that doing this right now, to this level is dropping a nuclear weapon on our near-fatally wounded automotive industry for no good reason.