OK, my moral outrage over the Obama administration has come to a new plateau.  Is it not enough that his administration has embraced social chaos in the gender/identity wars, continues to support killing millions of unborn children (all of this both home and abroad), and seemingly tries to strangle any possible economic growth ?  Now he’s attacking me personally!  I’m mad as can be and I’m not going to take it anymore!

So what’s he doing!  Horror of horrors, he is coming after my hot rod.  And not just mine, but coming after the entire auto enthusiast industry.  Yes I’m a car nut.  Probably a reflection of my flesh, but I’ll still rejoice in this manifestation of God’s common grace.  I have heavily modified my 71 Cutlass, and it features a late model fuel injected engine that is far cleaner environmentally than the original, while being more powerful and therefore fun to drive.  But the Obama administration is trying to kill the auto aftermarket in its latest regulatory release.  According to the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA),

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a regulation to prohibit conversion of vehicles originally designed for on-road use into racecars. The regulation would also make the sale of certain products for use on such vehicles illegal. The proposed regulation was contained within a non-related proposed regulation entitled “Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles—Phase 2.”

The regulation would impact all vehicle types, including the sports cars, sedans and hatch-backs commonly converted strictly for use at the track. While the Clean Air Act prohibits certain modifications to motor vehicles, it is clear that vehicles built or modified for racing, and not used on the streets, are not the “motor vehicles” that Congress intended to regulate.

“This proposed regulation represents overreaching by the agency, runs contrary to the law and defies decades of racing activity where EPA has acknowledged and allowed conversion of vehicles,” said SEMA President and CEO Chris Kersting. “Congress did not intend the original Clean Air Act to extend to vehicles modified for racing and has re-enforced that intent on more than one occasion.”

First of all, this is a dumb rule environmentally.  Hot rodders are not the source of pollution in general; in fact well-tuned cars are going to be far less polluting than those plain-jane, drive ’em till they drop beaters.  Pollution is a macro problem; and its not clear that something affecting a small part of the population is going to affect pollution meaningfully in any case.  Does the EPA want me to put back in my 1971 smog hog original engine?  They couldn’t stop that, yet I would pollute a lot more.

Related, I can’t help but think this is a deliberate attack on the enjoyment of cars that depend on internal combustion engines. Make classic cars go away and then replace with mandated green vehicles.  As long as the love affair with cars is allowed to continue, so will their internal combustion engines, which are the source of all the world’s ills.

Second, what’s this reg doing in a regulation on “Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium-and Heavy Duty Engines and Vehicles”?  Race cars are not part of that.  They buried this rule in a reg where no one could see it coming during the comment period and now intend to put it into the Federal Register as law.

Third, this is yet another example of the double-talk of this administration.  Mr. Obama continually talks about what he wants to do to “get the economy moving,” while many of the actions he takes are ones that destroy American industry and the good paying jobs that come with it.  The automotive aftermarket is not small, generating ~$250B to the economy last year.  Of course this isn’t going to disappear overnight, but over time much of it could.  I also suspect when this goes through the Supreme Court will give the EPA another 9-0 smackdown, but how much will be lost in the protracted court process?  You see the EPA wins even when they lose, as the potential fines are crippling to industry if their rule is upheld, such that they have to change their behavior independent of the strength of the case against the EPA.

Finally, the EPA of course denies that that’s what they’re up to, and Snopes IDs this as “mostly false.”  But I agree with the SEMA response (which Snopes includes), that it doesn’t matter what they say they’re going to do, but what the insert gives them the power to do.  Of course the EPA says’s the reg is no new law but a clarification of existing law–that’s what every reg does.  Technically the EPA can’t make law.  But their clarifications can have the force of law until challenged and found unconstitutional.

Support your local Berean car nut.  Sign the petition!  This is perhaps the Obama Administration’s most dastardly deed yet!*

*I hope you can take this as tongue-in-cheek.  I really do care a lot more about the other issues in my intro more than my hot rod!