Ski_Banker
Suspended
Thoughts on this auto industry development?
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http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos..._N.htm?poe=HFMostPopular&loc=interstitialskip
Obama drives up miles-per-gallon requirements
By James R. Healey, USA TODAY
The Obama administration announced Tuesday what amounts to a sweeping revision to auto-emission and fuel-economy standards, putting them in the same package for the first time.
The plan would require cars and trucks to average 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, President Obama said at a ceremony with legislators, regulators, executives of 10 car companies and the United Auto Workers union. The plan would increase the standard and accelerate the requirement from 35 mpg in 2020 set by the 2007 Energy Act.
OPEN ROAD: Obama plan could spell boom for these gas guzzlers
"The status quo is no longer acceptable," Obama said. "We have done little to increase fuel efficiency of America's cars and trucks for decades."
It also is expected to boost the average price of a new vehicle $600 on top of the $700 price boost already envisioned in the 2007 law, for a total of $1,300.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: United States | California | Barack Obama | White House | General Motors | Chrysler LLC | United Auto Workers | Natural Resources Defense Council | washington, d.c. | Jennifer Granholm | Kelley Blue Book | Center for American Progress
Obama agreed that "it costs money to build these vehicles." But he also stressed that "the cost of driving these vehicles will go down as drivers save money at the pump."
Over the life of the program, the USA would save 1.8 billion barrels of oil.
"While the United States makes up less than 5% of the world's population, we create roughly a quarter of the world's demand for oil. And this appetite comes at a tremendous price," Obama said.
The plan was leaked Monday night and Carol Browner, the White House energy and climate director, publicly confirmed the initiative in appearances on morning network news shows Tuesday, calling it a "truly historic" occasion and saying that such tougher environmental standards have been "long overdue."
The plan would effectively end a feud between automakers and states over emission standards — with the states getting tougher standards they want, but automakers getting the single national standard they've been seeking.
If a fragile compromise among often-warring factions — federal regulators, states and automakers — can last though the rulemaking process, the new regulations would be the first to blend emissions and fuel-economy standards, becoming perhaps the most dramatic suite of auto rules since the Clean Air Act of 1970. That law set auto-pollution standards for the first time and banned poisonous lead, which was used as a lubricant, from gasoline.
To streamline the rulemaking process, the two agencies mainly responsible — the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation — would work jointly, something almost unheard of.
The regulations would limit, for the first time, the amount of carbon dioxide vehicles could emit. The only way to cut that much CO2 is to burn less fuel. CO2 is vilified as a major greenhouse gas (ghg), blamed for global warming.
"Groundbreaking," said the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.
"Unprecedented — the first time the federal government would require reductions in global-warming pollution," said Daniel Weiss, senior fellow at the not-for-profit Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.
Key: California has agreed to follow the new federal standards, instead of imposing its own, at least until 2016. California, plus 13 other states and the District of Columbia, previously asked for a waiver allowing them to impose stricter greenhouse gas standards than the federal ones.
The plan requires improvements in fuel economy — via reductions in greenhouse gas emissions — for all cars and light trucks, based on their size. By 2016, cars will have to average 39 miles per gallon and trucks, 30 mpg.
The mileage numbers you'll see on new vehicles will be significantly lower, however, because those are calculated differently.
If the regulations encourage automakers to build smaller cars — administration officials say they won't — highway safety could decline. Statistics show small cars are less safe in crashes.
And decades of sales numbers show American buyers prefer larger vehicles, moving down in large numbers only because of high fuel prices or economic hard times.
If the regulations result in less-appealing vehicles, they will be "a very convoluted way" of trying to change buyer habits because of environmental concerns, says Jack Nerad, market analyst for Kelley Blue Book, a car-shopping service.
_______________________________________________________
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos..._N.htm?poe=HFMostPopular&loc=interstitialskip
Obama drives up miles-per-gallon requirements
By James R. Healey, USA TODAY
The Obama administration announced Tuesday what amounts to a sweeping revision to auto-emission and fuel-economy standards, putting them in the same package for the first time.
The plan would require cars and trucks to average 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, President Obama said at a ceremony with legislators, regulators, executives of 10 car companies and the United Auto Workers union. The plan would increase the standard and accelerate the requirement from 35 mpg in 2020 set by the 2007 Energy Act.
OPEN ROAD: Obama plan could spell boom for these gas guzzlers
"The status quo is no longer acceptable," Obama said. "We have done little to increase fuel efficiency of America's cars and trucks for decades."
It also is expected to boost the average price of a new vehicle $600 on top of the $700 price boost already envisioned in the 2007 law, for a total of $1,300.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: United States | California | Barack Obama | White House | General Motors | Chrysler LLC | United Auto Workers | Natural Resources Defense Council | washington, d.c. | Jennifer Granholm | Kelley Blue Book | Center for American Progress
Obama agreed that "it costs money to build these vehicles." But he also stressed that "the cost of driving these vehicles will go down as drivers save money at the pump."
Over the life of the program, the USA would save 1.8 billion barrels of oil.
"While the United States makes up less than 5% of the world's population, we create roughly a quarter of the world's demand for oil. And this appetite comes at a tremendous price," Obama said.
The plan was leaked Monday night and Carol Browner, the White House energy and climate director, publicly confirmed the initiative in appearances on morning network news shows Tuesday, calling it a "truly historic" occasion and saying that such tougher environmental standards have been "long overdue."
The plan would effectively end a feud between automakers and states over emission standards — with the states getting tougher standards they want, but automakers getting the single national standard they've been seeking.
If a fragile compromise among often-warring factions — federal regulators, states and automakers — can last though the rulemaking process, the new regulations would be the first to blend emissions and fuel-economy standards, becoming perhaps the most dramatic suite of auto rules since the Clean Air Act of 1970. That law set auto-pollution standards for the first time and banned poisonous lead, which was used as a lubricant, from gasoline.
To streamline the rulemaking process, the two agencies mainly responsible — the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation — would work jointly, something almost unheard of.
The regulations would limit, for the first time, the amount of carbon dioxide vehicles could emit. The only way to cut that much CO2 is to burn less fuel. CO2 is vilified as a major greenhouse gas (ghg), blamed for global warming.
"Groundbreaking," said the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.
"Unprecedented — the first time the federal government would require reductions in global-warming pollution," said Daniel Weiss, senior fellow at the not-for-profit Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.
Key: California has agreed to follow the new federal standards, instead of imposing its own, at least until 2016. California, plus 13 other states and the District of Columbia, previously asked for a waiver allowing them to impose stricter greenhouse gas standards than the federal ones.
The plan requires improvements in fuel economy — via reductions in greenhouse gas emissions — for all cars and light trucks, based on their size. By 2016, cars will have to average 39 miles per gallon and trucks, 30 mpg.
The mileage numbers you'll see on new vehicles will be significantly lower, however, because those are calculated differently.
If the regulations encourage automakers to build smaller cars — administration officials say they won't — highway safety could decline. Statistics show small cars are less safe in crashes.
And decades of sales numbers show American buyers prefer larger vehicles, moving down in large numbers only because of high fuel prices or economic hard times.
If the regulations result in less-appealing vehicles, they will be "a very convoluted way" of trying to change buyer habits because of environmental concerns, says Jack Nerad, market analyst for Kelley Blue Book, a car-shopping service.
