The Prime Example Why States Rights Matter

States Rights have often been the rallying cry for Republicans, but as the years have passed the number of asterisks after that belief have grown. The latest attack by this Republican administration on this tried and true belief is courtesy of the EPA.

On Wednesday the EPA had suit filed against it by a coalition of states led by California because the Nixon era agency denied a waver for California (and victoriously any state that has adopted the California emissions standards, which currently is totaling 14 states) to have tougher emissions standards than the rest of the country. This is the first time ever the EPA has denied such a waver.

This is simply the most ridiculous thing Ive seen in some time. The fact that the EPA denied more stringent standards to several states under a clause of the Clean Air Act seems to just stink to me. The fact that the administration is actually listening to the auto makers just shows how lacking in smarts Bush&co really are.

U.S. Auto makers are getting their collective ass kicked buy foreign companies because they have massively under estimated how important fuel efficiency is to Americans. Now that Ford has been deposed by Toyota for the number two sales spot in the U.S. market and seems to be posed to over take GM as well it makes you wonder how long it will take Washington to realize Detroit is broken and that they should stop listening to them.

In the Consumer Reports’ Annual Car Owner Satisfaction Survey domestics got knocked around like a feather weight in the ring with Mike Tyson. Of the satisfied portion of the survey Toyota dominated and domestics got only a piddly 7 out of 39 models on the list, heck even the Korean cars are starting to make the list before domestics. But dont worry plenty of demostics made the survey! 20 of the 22 least satisfied owners had domestic cars…oh wait never mind. But the key here is that the two top cars were the Prius and a BMW both of which have excellent gas mileage.

States see that fuel efficiency is important for their people in their daily lives, and are trying to do something about it. The California emissions standards are directed at the global warming crowd but they do much more than the Fed is doing to promote fuel independence which is why other states are jumping on board with it. Fuel efficiency is also the reason Toyota is rising to the top very fast. The bottom line is that the California emissions standards represent the serious kick in the pants Detroit needs in order to remain relevant for years to come.