Now Appearing On Your New Car

by Stuart Shapiro

The fight to combat global warming in the United States will be a tough one without legislation.  However it took one small step forward yesterday as the EPA and the Department of Transportation issued final rules mandating new disclosures on new car sales.  The new labels contain information on fuel efficiency and environmental emissions.

These improvements will give consumers better, more complete information to consider when purchasing new vehicles that are covered by the increased fuel economy standards. Starting with model year 2013, the improved fuel economy labels will be required to be affixed to all new passenger cars and trucks – both conventional gasoline powered and “next generation” cars, such as plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.

While I would have preferred the labels originally proposed by EPA and DOT with grades on them, this is a step forward.  It is all part of the Obama Administration’s efforts to use disclosure and information provision as a regulatory strategy, instead of stricter command and control approaches.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.