It may seem minor to some, and a major setback to a certain sect of fools, but President Trump’s action this week to repeal Obama-era safety and climate features in new cars will go down in history as a net positive.
Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin appeared in the White House on Thursday to announce the repeal of the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding, which inspired new emissions standards for vehicles and offered off-cycle credits to auto manufacturers that included certain emission-reducing features in their new vehicle models.
One of the most hated features by me and many other Americans is the auto-start/stop feature.
When this feature first rolled out into the mainstream, I associated it with luxury. My family never had a brand new car during my adolescent years. So when I first encountered the feature, likely through a friend’s parent’s vehicle, I was kind of awestruck by the innovation.
“Of course,” I thought. “That makes so much sense! Why does the car need to be on when you’re at a complete stop!”
It didn’t take me long to realize that the new technology was probably causing more harm than good.
Wear and tear on an engine and all supporting parts to initiate the combustion cycle dramatically increase. This costs the consumer more money in the longrun.
In the short term, consumers can expect to pay up to $3,000 more for a vehicle with the auto-start/stop feature than one without. And you can add even more to that sticker price if the vehicle includes the auto start/stop feature with the option to have a button that disables the automatic feature. How much sense does that make?
On the back-end of things, with all of the wear and tear on those parts, there is more of a demand to replace them. That means ramping up production of OEM components. That means more energy is expended to create those parts. And that means, according to climate change warriors, more carbon is being released into the atmosphere to interfere with the planet’s “fever.”
Just like any other climate initiative, this, too, was a scam.
The wind turbines and solar panels are made of primarily non-biodegradable materials that require massive amounts of energy and/or oil to produce or excavate. And once those materials have outlived their usefulness, they can’t be broken down and recycled. They must be buried and cordoned off.
I’m not sure what other features the repeal of this Obama-era report may affect, but I have a few suggestions…
For the love of all that is holy, can we please have our remote start last longer than five minutes?!
I have a 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander that we purchased when my wife had our second child. It’s great for carting the kids and the groceries, and a joy to drive. EXCEPT FOR THE DAMN REMOTE START!
During the recent cold snap and onslaught of weekend snowstorms, I relied on the Grand Highlander to get me to work as opposed to my rundown 2011 Corolla with over 260,000 miles on it. And on those sub-zero mornings, I would initiate the remote start on the Grand Highlander to get it warmed up before I got in. The only problem is that by the time I got outside, maybe ten to fifteen minutes later, the damn car had already shut itself off. And it was never warm inside to boot.
That leads me to my next suggestion: make the cars so that their interior climate control engages before I put the car on the road! I can’t exactly prove it, but I know for a fact that though I have the car’s climate control cranked to 85 degrees, it doesn’t actually begin to warm up until I get about a mile from my house.
While we’re at it, can we make it mandatory for every gas station to have the lock feature at the pump? You know what I’m talking about, where you press the tab under the handle to keep the gas flowing into your tank so that you can put your hands in your pocket or sit in your lukewarm vehicle until you hear the click of the handle.
And one more.
Take the f#@%ing slow-pour features off of the portable gas canisters. If I can’t steadily pour a tank of gas into my lawnmower myself without creating a hazmat situation, I shouldn’t be allowed to operate machinery.
So, great work, President Trump. But there’s still more to be done. Keep it up!