"Economists point out that the size-based feature gives car companies an incentive to manufacture and sell bigger vehicles: to make fuel economy standards easier to meet. There is no clear mechanism in the rule that works to limit the number of gas guzzlers an auto maker sells. There also are several loopholes, such as credit given for technologies that don’t directly improve fuel economy."
"Taxing carbon emissions or gasoline directly, as Europe does, would be far more cost-efficient. An analysis by Prof. Mark Jacobsen at the University of California, San Diego, showed that the cost per gallon saved through the fuel-economy standard is three to six times higher than a gasoline tax. But raising federal gasoline taxes, which have stayed at an inflation-unadjusted 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993, would be political suicide. Carbon taxes are deeply unpopular, too."
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