Appliance, vehicle standards stifle consumer choice -- Brookings economist

The United States should shift away from setting standards that require new vehicles, electronics and household appliances to consume less energy because those rules rely on a "paternalistic" assumption that buyers can't decide how to save themselves money, a prominent economist from the Brookings Institution and a Vanderbilt University professor of law, economics and management say in a new paper.
The paper, published this week by Ted Gayer, co-director of the economic studies program at Brookings, and Kip Viscusi, an economist at Vanderbilt University known for his research on cost-benefit analysis, calls for a new approach. The authors say it's important to reduce pollution from energy use that harms the public, but people shouldn't be forced to buy certain products when the costs and benefits -- more expensive products in the short run, and energy savings in the long run -- are purely private.
"The economic puzzle raised by all these energy regulations is why consumers are this remiss," Gayer and Viscusi write. "How can it be that consumers are leaving billions of potential economic gains on the table by not buying the most energy-efficient cars, clothes dryers, air conditioners, and light bulbs?"

Read more: http://www.eenews.net/public/Greenwire/2012/07/13/2