On Monday, January 26th, President Obama held a ceremony to celebrate his allowance of California to set emissions standards for vehicles sold in the state.  The Governator was there, he probably said some things no one could understand and then cut the education budget again.

I’m not an environmentalist, but I think it’s a good idea to enforce stricter emissions laws on the automakers selling cars in this country.  I’m reading Friedman’s “Hot, Flat, and Crowded” and he talks about setting an example for other countries with green agenda.  I suppose I’m extra green lately because Friedman’s words are like imported chocolate for my mind.  Anyway.

My political views aren’t explicitly stated on this website, but I am in favor of allowing states to set more laws and removing control from the federal government.  After all, that is what the Constitution explicitly stated.  I’m in favor of this most of the time.

This is not one of those times.

The economy thrives on standards. Miles, minutes, megabytes, volts, dollars, http, alphabet, you get the point.  By standardizing a system, groups are able to work more efficiently.  Nowhere is this more true than in manufacturing.  A national standard for emissions allows the auto manufacturer to focus on other things instead of meeting emissions levels in different states.  Right now California has the strictest standard, with a small collection of states simply copying whatever that state does.  An automaker can simply set their emissions goals to the California benchmark and meet the needs of everyone.  That is how it works for now.

But what happens when states start getting greedy? If I’m a state government, I could use emissions for leverage over a car company.  Say I’m in Alabama and we’re struggling for money.  We might threaten Ford to lower emissions on F150s or they pay a $1,000 fine per vehicle.  That isn’t fair to Ford.  Or what if Alabama, which manufactures Hyundais, raises their emissions regulations so high that only Hyundai can sell cars in Alabama for a profit. They give Hyundai a monopoly.  Either way I’m making Alabama out to be quite evil.  I’m not saying states will do this, but Obama has essentially made it possible for them to.

But why am I confused you ask?  Barack Obama is a liberal democrat.  Traditionally he would favor big government and setting laws at the federal level.  Letting California, even liberal California, set their own emissions standards goes against this.  I’m what you might call a constitutional conservative with a populist bias (whatever that is), I would normally prefer to let states set their own laws.  When it cam to emissions, the president and myself have flipped roles.  Very odd.

Regardless, Obama has surprised me here.  I don’t think he’ll let the states take this too far, so I’ll allow myself to be pleasantly surprised.  I look forward to more pleasant surprises from him.

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By The Weakonomist

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categories: environment, government