{"id":4981,"date":"2005-08-16T10:18:06","date_gmt":"2005-08-16T14:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=4981"},"modified":"2005-08-16T10:18:06","modified_gmt":"2005-08-16T14:18:06","slug":"bushs-suv-policy-manages-to-get-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/bushs-suv-policy-manages-to-get-worse\/","title":{"rendered":"Bush’s SUV policy manages to get worse"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to Hummers and other heavy SUVs, the Bush administration’s policies are already deeply flawed. In 2003, as part of the third White House tax-cut plan, for example, Bush allowed business owners and the self-employed to deduct the cost of large SUVs<\/a> (weighing 6,000 pounds or more) up to $100,000. The price for a Hummer, which gets about 10 miles to the gallon, could therefore be deducted altogether, despite the fact that it’s about the least fuel-efficient vehicle an American can buy.<\/p>\n

And now, just a week after Bush signed an energy bill that he claimed<\/a> will lessen the country’s dependence on foreign oil, we learn that the White House is now poised to drop a proposal<\/a> to make large SUVs meet previously established fuel-efficiency standards.<\/p>\n

The Bush administration is expected to abandon a proposal to extend fuel economy regulations to include Hummer H2’s and other huge sport utility vehicles, auto industry and other officials say. <\/p>\n

The proposal was among a number of potential strategies outlined by the administration in 2003 to overhaul mileage requirements for light trucks — sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and minivans. It had been seen by industry officials as likely to be adopted. […]<\/p>\n

Under the Bush administration plan, about half a dozen size classes will be determined by the vehicle’s length and width. Instead of an overall mileage requirement for the total fleet of light trucks a manufacturer sells in a model year, makers will have to meet some kind of target or average within each size class. As a result of the proliferating categories, it will probably become more difficult to predict fuel economy trends. <\/p>\n

“It’s an invitation to game the system and increase our oil dependence and the pollution that results,” said Dan Becker, a global warming strategist at the Sierra Club. “The Bush administration is failing to use the most powerful weapon in its arsenal to save people money at the pump.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These vehicles are getting bigger, heavier, and faster — while also getting fewer miles to the gallon. And the White House plans to keep it that way.<\/p>\n

Last week, when Bush signed his energy bill into law, he said<\/a> he was finally establishing a “national energy policy,” which was necessary because “our consumers are paying more for the price of their gasoline.” He even managed to say it with a straight face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to Hummers and other heavy SUVs, the Bush administration’s policies are already deeply flawed. In 2003, as part of the third White House tax-cut plan, for example, Bush allowed business owners and the self-employed to deduct the cost of large SUVs (weighing 6,000 pounds or more) up to $100,000. The price for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}