Obama administration officials touted the tougher car mileage standards announced yesterday as “truly historic”. A historic missed opportunity is more like it. A popular president with a green agenda and with his party in control of Congress could have taken the direct approach to reducing America's carbon footprint by raising the lowest gasoline taxes in the developed world. Detroit, which traditionally lobbied against fuel taxes, is suddenly in no position to argue. Instead, Barack Obama is tightening the flawed corporate average fuel economy standards imposed in 1975.
奥巴马政府官员将日前公布的更严格汽车行驶里程标准标榜为具有“真正的历史意义”。更恰当的说法应该是一个具有历史意义的错失了的机遇。一位有着环保议程、所属党派掌控着国会、自身受到民众喜爱的总统，本应能够以直接的方式减少美国的碳足迹：提高发达国家中最低的燃油税。而且通常会游说反对燃油税的底特律突然彻底失去了谈判的资本。但是，巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)却提高了1975年实施的存在缺陷的“公司平均燃料manbetx20客户端下载 性”(CAFE)标准。