On Wednesday, I wrote about auto manufacturers having second thoughts about the EPA’s 2025 fuel efficiency standard they signed-on to in 2011, and the result of getting in bed with big government. They are forecasting difficulty in selling their cars – expected to cost some $6,000 more – in a market where low fuel prices prevail.
Now President Obama and his EPA have their sights set on the fossil fuel industry itself, making it even more difficult for auto makers to sell their cars.
(Cartoon courtesy of sodahead.com)
Having started the closing of coal-fired power plants, which has resulted in the loss of jobs for coal miners and the filing of Chapter 11 by coal companies, the president is now going after the oil and gas industry through its shareholders.
Although shareholders at Exxon Mobil and Chevron voted-down resolutions to force the companies to determine the risk of the government’s efforts to curb climate change to their business, the Obama administration is now threatening rule changing to force them to do so.
In big government fashion, the White House is planning a new rule that companies with federal contracts must disclose whether they share information about the risks that a changing climate could pose to their operations, as well as their goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The government is a major buyer of oil products, including jet fuel and diesel used by the military services.
It’s blackmail, pure and simple. Obama knows that the companies will not stop supplying our defense department.
I believe time is on our side. The new rule isn’t expected to be released until the fall, election time, and sure to be followed by challenges. Donald Trump has already pledged to kill the over-reaching regulations of the Obama administration, but a Hillary Clinton victory would only lead to costlier climate change rules.
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