Open U.S. Borders to Efficient Cars

May 7, 2008 – Vol.13 No.7

SKIP THE GAS TAX HOLIDAY:
OPEN U.S. BORDERS TO EFFICIENT CARS.

Obama’s right, suspending the gas tax in the US for the summer months is a gimmick to grab votes in the tight race for the White House. Saving a few bucks on a fill-up won’t drive gas prices down permanently nor will it save household economies already headed toward ruin. Drivers could save more with a lighter foot on the accelerator pedal and eliminating useless trips. Let the mailman pick up your outgoing mail. Do all your shopping in one trip:plan before you leave. Shop the Internet.

There’s a better alternative to temporarily reducing gas prices: Flood the streets of America with dramatically more fuel efficient cars and trucks, the kind the rest of the would has.

My beloved Indiana-built Subaru is available elsewhere as a fuel efficient diesel or can be converted to run on liquified natural gas (LNG). But bring this fuel-saving, greenhouse-gas-cutting, break-the-oil-addiction, patriotic car into the US and the Feds would take it away from me.

The imported Subaru would meet US crash tests (the world car is structurally identical to the US version) and with the LNG conversion much cleaner than US standards. (I don’t know how clean Subaru’s new Boxer Diesel is, but other new diesels now meet US 50-state requirements.) However, according to Washington rules, since the world car isn’t sold here by the manufacturer, I can’t have one. I’d be a criminal for driving nearly the same, but better car than I already own.

The US emission and crash regulations that keep hundreds of fuel efficient models off US roads are really just protectionism for American car makers. Keeping the best Subarus out is just one example of perhaps hundreds.

Generally, the Republicans are opposed to regulation and for free markets. Yet they haven’t done anything about removing regulations that keep fuel efficient cars off the road. Nor have they done anything about opening new markets for cars and trucks in the US. Democrats have sat on their hands, too.

Removing the regulations that keep clean, safe and efficient cars out of the US would quickly open the entrepreneurial doors of importers of new and used cars particularly from Europe and Canada. (The Japanese drive on the other side like the British. Americans wouldn’t like that.) For awhile US consumers would be able to buy a wide array of new and used cars from these importers. Sure, there’d be risks involved. Parts might not be readily available, for instance, but there is overnight mail from Europe and Canada.

Initially US manufacturers would react negatively to the removal of protectionist policy disguised as safety and emissions regulation. They’d be stuffing the pockets of politicians with cash not to do it.

But, the smarter ones might see new opportunities in relaxing the rules. They could stop their current expensive practice of developing cars for two markets – the US and the rest of the World – as they do now. Developing world cars only would save considerable cash. With world cars only they could export more cars from the US, creating new jobs for American workers. The low value of the dollar would make exports quite appealing overseas.

The rule relaxation might also bring back some old brands to the states like Alfa Romeo or Renault, as well as some brands not sold here like Skoda. New brands would bring more consumer choice to buyers and bring new business opportunities.

It’s hard to tell how oil markets would react to a sudden and dramatic change in US policy towards fuel economy. But a potential for a tsunami of fuel efficient vehicles headed to US shores might throw a little scare into oil traders. Admittedly, rule changing and elimination might take months in Washington’s snail’s pace bureaucracy. But with some guarantee that this would happen, importers could have car-filled ships waiting offshore ready to flood our streets with the same highly fuel-efficient cars the world has but our government won’t allow.