The news is chockablock these days with weather-related alarms, most—flooding in the Northeast aside—having to do with extreme heat: Phoenix breaking all records for consecutive days above 110 degrees, China setting an all-time high of 126, Iran winning top honors by hitting a heat index of 152 (!!). Given that the normal body temp is 98.6 and that brain damage will occur at 108, it’s clear that human survival increasingly is at stake.
So what are we to make of the continued ostrich-like posture of the RV Industry Association?
Even as the heat numbers hit new highs, the RVIA issued two press releases in the past week that a) suggest it exists in a parallel universe, in which there’s nothing to be concerned about; and b) that it’s not above trying to have its cake and eat it, too. The first, dated July 13, reported the association’s “comments” on new emissions standards being proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency because, you know, global warming; the second, dated July 18, conveyed its thoughts about the need for pull-through EV chargers because, you know, global warming.
Notably, neither press release mentions global warming, or even the more anodyne “climate change.” The closest either gets to acknowledging that there is anything environmentally amiss is to give a nod to “greenhouse gases” in the comments on emissions standards, but when it comes to EV chargers, even that goes unmentioned. Indeed, the EV release makes not even the slightest attempt to explain why such chargers have become topical—it’s as though we’re simply seeing a change in drive-train fashions. Hemlines go up, and hemlines go down. Internal combustion engines are in, and then they’re out. So it goes.
Regarding the proposed emissions standards, the RVIA correctly notes that the new regulations will, if adopted, “increase the cost of engines in both motorhomes and tow vehicles.” And really, what else do we need to know? Higher internal combustion engine costs “will severely limit the use and affordability of motorhomes,” which “will severely hurt motor home manufacturers, dealers, their employees, and their families.” And switching to electric drives wouldn’t be much better, because “the batteries would take up space that is otherwise necessary for housing the various elements of a motorhome.” Indeed, the batteries’ extra weight would leave RVs “no longer capable of being equipped with the components typically found in a motorhome.”
In other words, RVIA doesn’t think attempts to limit greenhouse gases are a good idea. Nor does it think that battery technology is a viable alternative—or it didn’t until July 18, when its second press release made the case “for federal funding to be used to install pull-through electric vehicle charging stations to meet the needs of RVers today and well into the future.” Federal regulation, bad. Federal dollars? That’s another story.
At stake, as the RVIA took pains to point out, is $5 billion for the states to install DC fast-chargers and an additional $2.5 billion for cities, counties, local governments and tribes to establish community charging hubs. RVIA wants to make sure that RVers aren’t overlooked. “Our team has been working to ensure that RVs are not left behind during the transition to electric vehicles,” the release quoted Jason Rano, RVIA’s vice president of government affairs. “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deploy EV charging nationwide.”
The July 18 release included a link to an 8-page report and financial analysis, much of it focused on electric trucks pulling RV trailers and on electrified RV trailers, both of which are better served by pull-through sites than by more conventional head-in charging stations. But the report also avers that motorized RVs will be hitting the road as soon as next year, with Class Bs leading the way, followed by Class Cs and Class As—the ones that can’t be electrified without losing “the various elements of a motorhome”—starting in 2026.
Sometimes the left hand really doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. Or saying. Meanwhile, it bears noting that the EPA’s proposed new emissions standards wouldn’t start being phased in until 2027 and then over the subsequent five years.
It’s not unusual, of course, for a trade association to reflexively oppose any government regulation affecting its members, and especially so if it’s going to cost them money. Then again, these are not usual times. The economy is littered with industries that opposed necessary regulations—coal mining comes most prominently to mind—by claiming that such changes would create too much economic hardship. The changes came nonetheless, if not by government intervention then via more ruthless marketplace discipline, and the resulting economic pain was all the deeper and more extensive because its victims were less prepared than they would have been otherwise.
RVIA’s members would be better served if their trade association acknowledged that the old ways are unsustainable—that new emissions standards are being proposed because alarm bells are ringing about the air being on fire. Instead of reflexively opposing attempts to put out the conflagration, RVIA should take a leadership position and ask the question it has so far avoided: what can we do to sustain the RV industry in a rapidly deteriorating environment whose demise our products currently are hastening?
Most recent posts
- It’s been fun. Now I’m moving on.
- Feds go after reservation algorithms
- Having wheels no guarantee of safety
- Oregon a hellish RV epicenter
- A handful of updates on past posts
Renting Dirt 