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GEIER v. AMERICAN HONDA MOTOR CO.

Opinion of the Court

But why should DOT have bothered to impose an airbag ceil-
ing when the practical threat to the mix it desired arose from
the likelihood that manufacturers would install, not too many
airbags too quickly, but too few or none at all? After all,
only a few years earlier, Secretary Dole’s predecessor had
discovered that manufacturers intended to meet the then-
current passive restraint requirement almost entirely (more
than 99%) through the installation of more affordable auto-
matic belt systems. 46 Fed. Reg. 53421 (1981); State Farm,
463 U. S., at 38. The extra credit, as DOT explained, was
designed to “encourage manufacturers to equip at least some
of their cars with airbags.” 49 Fed. Reg. 29001 (1984) (em-
phasis added) (responding to comment that failure to man-
date airbags might mean the “end of . . . airbag technology”);
see also id., at 29000 (explaining that the extra credit for
airbags “should promote the development of what may be
better alternatives to automatic belts than would otherwise
be developed” (emphasis added)). The credit provision rein-
forces the point that FMVSS 208 sought a gradually develop-
ing mix of passive restraint devices; it does not show the
contrary.

Finally, FMVSS 208’s passive restraint requirement was
conditional. DOT believed that ordinary manual lap and
shoulder belts would produce about the same amount of
safety as passive restraints, and at signiﬁcantly lower
costs—if only auto occupants would buckle up. See id., at
28997–28998. Thus, FMVSS 208 provided for rescission of
its passive restraint requirement if, by September 1, 1989,
two-thirds of the States had laws in place that, like those of
many other nations, required auto occupants to buckle up
(and which met other requirements speciﬁed in the stand-
Id., at 28963, 28993–28994, 28997–28999. The Secre-
ard).
tary wrote that “coverage of a large percentage of the Amer-
ican people by seatbelt laws that are enforced would largely
negate the incremental increase in safety to be expected
Id., at 28997.
from an automatic protection requirement.”