Auto Executives Back Obama's Emissions Plan
By 2016 the American car fleet must be nearly 40 percent more fuel efficient than it is today
And as Michael Sivak of the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute points out, because vehicles have gotten progressively heavier over the years with all their extra features, one way to boost fuel efficiency is to try to slim them down.
The success of these efforts will ultimately depend upon what consumers are willing to buy. The EPA says the new rule will increase car prices by $600, which the average driver should recoup in about three years from buying less gas. Assuming, that is, that Americans start buying again. This year, analysts are expecting vehicle sales of about 10 million, down from a peak of about 16 million just a few years ago.
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Reader Comments
Obama and the second automotive Dark Ages
A second Automotive Dark Ages is coming. The first occured in the 1970's. That Dark Ages was caused by the first smog emission standards. From 1971 thru about 1975 the emission standards got tougher each year and each year's new model cars were progressively less powerful, slower and poor running than the previous year's model. Cars hit the nadir in 1975 and remained there until the early 1980s when technology started to catch up with the standards and cars finally began to impove each year. The President's new "greenhouse gas/fuel economy" standards will cause a new automotive Dark Ages. Expect new car performance and utility to diminish rapidly as we move through model years 2012 to 2016 and remain low until technology catches up. Having lived through the first Dark Ages and knowing a second was coming, I purchsed my "retirement car" (a new Ford Mustang GT) six years early as this breed of new car will not be available six years from now. I will be keeping it and will not be purchasing one of the new Obama cars. So please you future owners of 2012 and newer cars, watch your rear view mirrors carefully and please move to the right when you see one of us in an older car coming up behind you.
No Mention of FFV's
I cannot believe a writer for a national magazine or for that matter, the Obama Administration would fail to mention E85's or FFV's when talking about making our country cleaner. The first thing that Obama should have done was to mandate that all future vehicles in the U.S. would be FFV's. Then instead of the ridiculous Cash for Clunkers, the administration should have offered coupons for converting older vehicles to E85 specs. Instead of giving hundreds of Billions of Dollars to the Cellulosic Ethanol Flim Flam Researchers, he should repeal the tariff on imported Clean and Green Sugarcane based Ethanol. The Cellulosic Ethanol Researchers have done nothing but open demo plant after demo plant all at taxpayer expense. Cellulosic Ethanol is the new Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac $Trillion Bank Robbery waiting to happen. Instead of going with unsafe Clown Cars that will kill millions of Americans, he should simply realize that a safe E85 SUV is just as clean to the environment as an unsafe Battery operated Clown Car. Instead of making Ethanol from Corn we should be trading Corn to Third World Countries for Sugarcane based Ethanol. They overcome poverty. We get cleaner and greener Ethanol. We get stronger and more able to thump our noses at the Mid East the next time they jack up their prices for some fake crisis. Instead of doing something stupid like taking oil out of the Military Strategic Petroleum Reserves, we could build Civilian Petroleum Reserves in CA and NY. God knows they need the jobs. That would really make our country stronger unlike the Obama lies that we are stronger because we eliminated enhanced interrogation techniques or closed down Gitmo and gave all the Terrorist American civil rights.
The Auto industry willnot have to Compormise Safty
The Ford Fusion is close with 41 MPG and most trucks will have to be hybrids. Other car makers have smaller 5 passenger cars with all the safety features that are close to the requirements. There will have to be a lot more small car owners to offset those that need larger cars with lower gas mileage.
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