Cool car scheme costly nonsense

Sacramento can be a caricature of bumbling, well-intentioned, paternalistic nonsense. The problem is, when government agencies like the state Air Resources Board stumble ahead with hare-brained schemes, it creates real-life costs and harm.

The air board had done it again with a proposed mandate that new cars and light trucks sold in California by 2012 have “metallic reflective window glazing” to reduce temperatures inside the vehicles. The excuse for this diktat from on high is to fight global warming. The logic goes like this: if car interiors are cooler, drivers will use less air conditioning and reap better fuel mileage, resulting in less fuel burned and, voila!, fewer carbon dioxide emissions.

The present problem, according to car makers, is that the coating would wreck havoc with a host of electronic equipment motorists rely on, such as GPS devices, cell phones, garage door openers, satellite radio systems and even ankle bracelets worn by parolees so authorities can track their whereabouts. The air board concedes the coating hinders communications.

This well-intentioned proposal is not only unreasonable, but more harmful than most schemes emanating from Sacramento’s unelected regulators. They should know better. Japan experimented with similar foolishness 20 years ago and abandoned the idea because of the problems it caused. Indeed, foreign auto makers urge Sacramento not to go down this road, so far to no avail.

Domestically, imposing this scheme will add hundreds of dollars to new car prices, and would take — if the state’s math can be trusted — years to recoup an equal amount in lower gasoline costs. On top of that, Chrysler says it may have to stop selling its new electric vehicles, which can’t comply and don’t even have air conditioning.

And, of course, as California goes, so too the nation because of the state’s buying clout. Auto manufacturers can’t afford to retool to turn out one model for one region and a different version for the rest of the country.

Perhaps all these negative realities will register with the Air Resources Board brain trust before one of their top-level regulators pulls into his own driveway to discover his garage door opener doesn’t work.