EPA and DOT adopt new truck rules that pay for themselves - America! What a country!

Hey, I live in a place - Bakersfield - that has just about the worst air pollution in the country. It's pretty bad, but, at least I'm not in China - the air there is about a zillion times worse. Makes this place look like a pristine tropical paradise. Well, maybe I exaggerate a bit.

Anyway, government agencies are always proposing and adopting new laws to reduce pollution, and the people that have to comply with those regs are always bitching that they cost too much, will put them out of business, and/or they won't do what they are supposed to do anyway.

Sometimes those arguments get ripped to shreds.

Case in point: Today EPA and DOT announced some new rules for big ass trucks and other heavy duty vehicles. The rules are gonna reduce CO2 emissions by over 1 billion tonnes (that's the fancy schmantzy way of saying metric tons for you non-science types reading this). They're also gonna reduce oil consumption by over 2 billion barrels and the fuel savings from that alone will pay for the new controls in about 2 years.

So the new regs essentially pay for themselves!

In addition, the public will reap a net benefit of over $230 billion - that's a benefit-to-cost ratio of about 8:1.

Not bad, not bad at all.

You can get all the details at this link: New EPA/DOT truck rules pay for themselves