ABSTRACT

This chapter demonstrates that United States (US) light vehicles unquestionably account for a surprisingly small and declining share of global greenhouse emissions. The emphasis that greens and geo-greens have continually placed on getting federal subsidies for these different sorts of new cars is curious in several respects. To assert the existence of social costs associated with automobiles is an insufficient justification for preferential subsidies and mandates, however, because subsidies and mandates also impose undesirable social costs, namely, higher energy prices, higher vehicle prices and higher taxes. Proponents of two quite different policy goals – reduced oil imports (energy independence) and reduced greenhouse gas emissions (climate stability) – appear to share a common presumption that US passenger cars and the fuels they use are the single most important key to solving both problems. The word "trade" in cap and trade had come to mean trading political favors, not trading in the marketplace.