Expensive gasoline is a signature of the Obama Era, and it’s going to shoot up another 6 to 9 cents per gallon under new Environmental Protection Agency rules, if the oil industry’s estimates are correct. An estimated additional cost of $130 per car on new vehicles will also be part of the package. The goal of these regulations is to reduce tailpipe emissions by cutting down on the amount of sulfur and nitrogen oxide in gasoline. The cost won’t be easily absorbed by a weak economy struggling to emerge from years of anemic growth.
The EPA, of course, says the gas price increase will be much smaller – only a penny or two per gallon – but as Charles Drevna, head of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, ruefully noted to Fox News, “I haven’t seen an EPA rule on fuels that has come out since 1995 that hasn’t said it would cost only a penny or two more.” For what it’s worth, the American Energy Alliance notes that the price of gasoline in California, where these fuel standards are already in effect, is 38.9 cents per gallon higher than the national average.
It should come as no surprise that much of this proposed gas price increase is a tithe to the bizarre Church of Global Warming, which soldiers on even after the total debunking of “global warming” mythology over the past two years. In fact, according to CNS News, the Obama Administration is now amusing itself by issuing reports that say we were going to have a brutal Ice Age, but “because of humans, the next ice age has been ‘delayed indefinitely.’” That’s how the cult leaders are claiming that global warming is real, despite the utter lack of verifiable evidence that any significant “climate change” is occurring. So… another wing of the Administration wants to spend billions to reduce the very same emissions that are protecting us from a new Ice Age?
But leaving the radical environmental lunacy aside, there could be significant health benefits from the new regulations due to reduced sulfur emissions, and the corresponding health care savings might offset, or even outweigh, the increased gasoline cost. Some auto manufacturers think the new standards will also improve fuel efficiency, which would ameliorate sticker shock at the pump.
Read More at Human Events . By John Hayward.
Photo Credit: Geoff Livingston Creative Commons
