Tuesday, August 07, 2018

Public Opposed To Eliminating Auto Efficiency Standards


Donald Trump's administration has been disastrous for our environment. Trump withdrew this country from the Paris Accords (fighting global climate change). He also appointed an anti-environment person (Scott Pruitt) to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who did away with clean air standards and rules preventing companies from dumping pollution into our water.

That wasn't enough for Trump. Now he is going to eliminate the fuel efficiency standards required of those producing cars for the American market. He has said that lower efficient cars are "safer" for the consumers. That's a patently ridiculous idea. Cars are safer than ever before, and that's in spite of meeting stricter fuel efficiency standards. I think the real reason is two-fold -- 1) he doesn't care about the environment, and 2) he's trying to undo everything President Obama accomplished.

This is a stupid idea, made even stupider by the fact that it was not asked for (or wanted) by car manufacturers. Fortunately, most Americans know that. About half (48%) of Americans say Trump's move is a bad idea, while only about a quarter (28%) say it's a good idea. And that is true of both genders, all age groups, all income levels, all regions of this country, and Democrats and Independents.

Only one group thinks it is a good idea -- Republicans (who have shown they will support Trump no matter how crazy his policies are). But Trump (and the Republicans) are out-of-step with most Americans on this -- just like they are on many other issues.

The chart above uses information from a new YouGov Poll -- done on August 6th of a representative sample of Americans -- with 23,794 respondents being questioned.

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