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"Environmentalists" Ainât Gonna Like This One
From Agence France Presse - 22 April 2004
US regulators have given Nissan North America a waiver from federal fuel economy rules in order to protect US jobs, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Rules were made to be broken. Particularly stupid politically correct rules. NHTSA announced Tuesday that it exempted Nissan from a provision in the federal fuel economy standards which the company was in imminent danger of breaching. Under the Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards, manufacturersâ domestic and imported car fleets cannot exceed an average gas mileage rate of 27.5 mpg -- per fleet. Snore. Oops! Mustâve dozed off there. What were you saying? But the official classification of domestic and imported cars will change later this year in accordance with a 1994 law implementing the North American Free Trade Agreement, which covers the United States, Mexico and Canada. The new regulations go into effect with the introduction of 2005 model-year vehicles and designate any vehicle as "domestic" if at least 75 percent of its parts or labour originate in any of the three nations covered by the treaty. Under ordinary circumstances, the new guidelines would change the designation of the Nissan Sentra from import to domestic -- at least for the purposes of measuring gas mileage. The fuel-sipping sedan is manufactured in Mexico. Nissan said that the reclassification would mean that its import fleet would no longer be in compliance with the CAFE car limit and it would be forced to begin sourcing parts for the Sentra overseas. In view of the threat to US jobs in the auto parts industry, NHTSA said it had no choice but to exempt Nissan from the "two-fleet" rule, and allow it to calculate the gas mileage for its entire fleet, regardless of where the vehicles were manufactured. If a foreign company with a plant in the U.S. sends jobs back overseas, is that outsourcing? Or maybe insourcing? Whatâs Kerryâs position on this - this week? "Projected job losses from denying the petition outweigh the potential job losses from granting it," NHTSA said in a statement, citing a provision in the CAFE law that exempts 2006 to 2010 model year cars from the two-fleet rule where the exemption preserves US jobs. Yaâ think? Whining from various enviro sources in 5, 4, 3... Posted by: Barbara Skolaut bskolaut@hotmail.com 2004-04-23 |
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