Daily Herald editorial

One of the challenges any American leader faces is the difficulty in getting things done while not angering any potential voters. The Obama administration’s push to require that automakers produce cars and trucks that are more fuel efficient is one variation on the many which politicians use to “do something” while angering almost no one. In this case, it’s a forlorn attempt to address pollution and gasoline scarcity issues — and, what is more, it’s one more policy that will have to be shoehorned into any eventual efforts to create a national energy policy.

The administration wants automobile manufacturers to have “fleet average” gas mileage of 56.2 miles per gallon, up from the 35.5 mpg standard now in place. On the surface that sounds good; who wouldn’t want to burn half the gas while driving as much as ever? Trouble is, those great mileage numbers may not really solve any problems. It will be difficult and extraordinarily costly to produce vehicles that meet the standard. If electricity replaced gasoline to get those mileage figures, it would mean burning more dirty coal to generate the electricity, limiting the net gain.

Nor is it clear how slamming manufacturers with a difficult regulatory situation will really fit into American energy policy — because the Obama administration, like those that preceded it and like Congress, has no coherent national energy policy. On one hand, the administration is promoting gasoline-burning by pouring oil from its strategic reserve into the marketplace. On the other, it is demanding fuel economy indirectly via manufacturers rather than going right to the source and creating tax or price penalties for excess fuel use.

It is far past time for the president and Congress to agree on a plan for America’s energy future rather than hacking away at the problem piecemeal (and ineffectively) as the administration is doing with its proposed fuel economy rules.