Standing up

One of the first signs of change stemming from the Republican capture of the House of Representatives last week may be a growing willingness on the part of regulated industries to stand up on their hind legs and say "No way" to profit-killing regulations that deny American consumers the products they want.

Businesses that tended to hunker down, bleat their willingness to obey and hope to merely survive now appear to sense they may have a receptive ear in House Republicans, who have the power to rein in runaway federal regulators.

In one example, automakers and car dealers now say they will fight the Obama administration's proposal to boost average new-car fuel economy to as much as 62 mpg by 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The manufacturers' main trade group accused regulators in documents filed last week of understating the costs of meeting such a demand by billions of dollars and suggested the industry might go to court over the issue.

"It's a fresh sign that the 'go along to get along' approach some industries took during the first two years of the Obama administration is over," noted the Journal.

The latest proposal drawing industry fire is one calling for average fuel-economy standards for new vehicle fleets to rise by between 3 percent and 6 percent annually from 35.5 mpg in 2016, hiking the fleet-average standard to as high as 62 mpg in 2025.

The EPA and the Transportation Department admit the new rules could raise the price of a model-year 2025 car by $770 to $3,500. But the Auto Alliance -- a top trade group for the manufacturers -- says the administration's assumptions are based on faulty methodology and that the cost of each vehicle would in fact increase by $4,448.

The alliance also points out recent sales suggest consumers still prefer pickups, SUVs and larger cars.

And that, of course, is the heart of the conflict.

Republicans ran this year on a platform of allowing capitalists to rebuild the economy by creating jobs while seeking to provide consumers with the products they want.

The Obama-Reid-Pelosi Democrats, on the other hand, continue to see the economic collapse as an opportunity to wrestle away control from free-market entrepreneurs, replacing the system that made America rich with the kind of top-down bureaucratic and regulatory "government by decree" that tells the consumer he is going to get not what he wants, but what his betters believe is good for him.