America's New Fuel Economy Cartel
4 Pages Posted: 7 Oct 2009
Date Written: 2009
Abstract
The May 2009 Rose Garden ceremony for President Obama’s signing of new fuel efficiency mandates for automobiles was attended by a remarkable gathering of “bootleggers and Baptists” - “Baptist” environmentalists who were pleased to get a policy they desired, and “bootlegger” automakers who were pleased that they will no longer have to make business decisions that weigh the willingness of American consumers to trade-off fuel efficiency for other desirable characteristics such as safety, capacity, power, and comfort. The gathering marked the replacement of industrial capitalism with centralized political management of the auto market.
Keywords: bootleggers and Baptists, Fuel Efficiency, CAFE, national capitalism, Massachusetts v. EPA
JEL Classification: D60, D43, H00, H10, H81, K20, K23, L10, L32, L52, L62, Q58, R42, R48
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