The EPA and
the US National
Highway Traffic
Safety Administration
(NHTSA)
requested comments
on freezing changes
to two regulations
originally based on
faulty science
and wrong predictions.
Those two regulations
are the Corporate
Average Fuel Economy
(CAFE),
and tailpipe CO2
emissions standards.
They affect cars
and light trucks,
at levels proposed
for model year 2020.
The "freeze"
would cover
model years
2021 through 2026.
The Carter Administration
gave us CAFE standards,
at a time when many people
falsely thought the world
was going to run out of oil,
the US would run out
of natural gas,
and greenhouse
gases, especially CO2,
was causing dangerous
global warming.
The foundation of
CAFE standards
was a house of cards:
(1)
The world is not
running out of oil.
(2)
The US is not
running out
of natural gas, and
(3)
And if CO2 causes any global
warming, it is such mild,
harmless warming, that:
CO2 levels rose from 1940 to 1975,
but the average temperature declined.
That has been blamed on aerosol
pollution, blocking sunlight.
Apparently, those aerosols
fell out of the atmosphere in 1975,
because there was warming
from 1975 to 2003 !
That 1975 to 2003 warming was
almost identical to the warming
from 1910 to 1940, that no one
blamed on CO2.
And that means the 1975 to 2003
warming could have had
natural causes, rather than
being caused by CO2.
Since 2003, the only warming
was from a Pacific Ocean
heat release in late 2015 and
early 2016 -- a cyclical local event,
which has nothing to do with CO2,
and is commonly called an "El Nino".
In summary, there is
no scientific proof
that CO2 caused
any warming after 1940,
and no logical reason to claim
the 1975 to 2003 warming
had a completely different cause
than the very similar
1910 to 1940 warming period,
in the same century.
The evidence for (1), (2) and (3)
contradict the computer models,
and other predictions,
that "supported" those fears.
Modern automobiles
emit little except
water vapor and
carbon dioxide,
two gases that are
essential for life
Hydraulic fracturing and
directional drilling open up
oil and gas resources
long thought to be
impossible to extract.
There is no danger
of ‘running out’ of
oil and gas.
Water vapor in the atmosphere
varies from 0.01% (polar regions),
to 4% (tropical regions),
of total atmospheric gases.
Carbon dioxide is about 0.04%.
Carbon dioxide quickly loses
its effectiveness
as a greenhouse gas.
The effect is logarithmic.
as CO2 levels increase.
Even at pre-industrial levels
(about 0.028% of the atmosphere),
the effect of increasing CO2
on temperatures was already tiny.
The US government
ignores water vapor
and over emphasizes
carbon dioxide.
The 1979 Charney Report
speculated that
modest global warming
from carbon dioxide,
in laboratory experiments
would be tripled
by water vapor
increasing in the air.
But we now have
almost 40 years
of atmospheric data
showing that the
rising temperatures
are very mild, and
water vapor amplification
is not happening.
The US global
climate models
have been
contradicted
by reality.
There has been
no significant rise
in atmospheric
temperatures
since the 1998
EL Nino heat peak.
That heat peak was
almost the same
average temperature
that we had in late 2015
and early 2016, at the
similar heat peak
of the next large El Nino.
There is no logical reason
to "tighten" CAFE standards.
There was no logical reason
for CAFE standards
in the first place.
Because the
so-called "science"
behind CAFE standards,
was speculation,
and it was wrong.