Taming the auto emissions jungle
A rare glimpse of a discoboat dinosaur on its way to the tar pits. Oh look... it's already stuck!
Aside from rampant overproduction and an overall lack of quality, one of the major reasons the discoboat dinosaurs of the American automobile industry are in over their heads financially – and in dreadful need of a big payday cash loan from a giant check cashing business – is that their record on producing environmentally friendly vehicles has been sorely lacking. That’s why the CAFE standards President Obama is going to require of the nation’s automakers is so important. With better, more fuel-efficient vehicles, sales will eventually increase and the recession will be beaten back.
Environment News Service (ENS) reports that President Obama is determined to make the CAFE standards the “highest auto fuel efficiency standards ever attempted in the United States.” Aside from the obvious benefit to the environment, the development of new greener technologies should eventually begin to stimulate job growth within the diseased auto industry as production capability and demand increase.
A ship-shape fleet
If Obama’s upgraded CAFE standards (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) are adopted as expected, the required fleet car average for fuel efficiency would be 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. Currently, the CAFE standard is 27.5 mpg for cars and 24 mpg for light trucks. Obama’s national CAFE standards – would begin with 2012 model cars.
An unnamed government official commented that “the projected oil savings of this program over the life of this program is 1.8 billion barrels of oil.” Furthermore, the official claims that under President Obama’s proposal, “tailpipe emissions would fall by more than 30 percent.”
Obama has an ally in California
California is one of 13 states that has been petitioning the Environmental Protection Agency for years for permission to enact their own emissions standards. These standards would have been significantly more strict than the national standard (reducing harmful emissions by 30 percent in passenger cars by 2016 has been the Golden State’s goal). California supports Obama’s drive for heightened CAFE standards that former President George W. Bush refused. Now the EPA is reconsidering California’s previous request.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be on hand to attend the president’s CAFE standards announcement.
“If EPA does grant the waiver, California has agreed that they will defer to the proposed national standard that we are announcing tomorrow,” according to the unnamed official.
The industry-wide effect
“It’s important to note that all companies will be required to make more efficient and cleaner cars,” said the official. “We do that by proposing individual standards for each class size of vehicle and then a fleet average for each company. This has the effect of preserving consumer choice – you can continue to buy whatever size car you like, all cars get cleaner.”
Is anyone surprised that the world’s major automakers said in a joint statement that they’ll support Mr. Obama’s CAFE standards statement? The rest of the industrialized world has generally been ahead of America on environmental issues, and the American automakers have no leeway for argument, considering their sorry state and total dependence on taxpayer dollars.
One national standard, no red tape
Dave McCurdy, president and CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, had this to say about where America has been and where it needs to be headed:For seven long years, there has been a debate over whether states or the federal government should regulate autos. President Obama’s announcement ends that old debate by starting a federal rule making to set a National Program. Automakers are committed to working with the President to develop a national program administered by the federal government. All industries will be called upon to reduce carbon emissions. Automakers play an important role.
Having a national program in place will prevent conflicting standards and give automakers a leg up on long-term product planning. Over the life of the program, experts predict there would be a reduction of 900 million metric tons of greenhouse gas. According to the official, “That is equivalent to taking 177 million cars off the road or shutting down 194 coal plants.”
Following California’s example
President Obama has directed the Department of Transportation to work in tandem with the White House and relevant federal agencies to “coordinate multi-year CAFE standards by April 2010,” writes the ENS.
Executive Director Bill Becker of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies is excited with the changes to come.
“Wish they all could be California… cars? Well under an historic agreement between California and the auto manufacturers, now they will be,” said Becker. “After an initial phase-in, every new vehicle sold in every state in the country will be required to meet California’s clean car greenhouse gas standards. And that’s not all; the auto manufacturers have agreed to drop their contentious litigation and support this landmark regulatory program. Few actions could have a more profound impact in the fight against global warming.”
Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, is equally enthusiastic that the adoption of the new CAFE standards will be a step in the right direction:
President Obama, the state of California, the auto industry, and environmental leaders have come together around a global warming solution that will strengthen our economy and put the auto industry on the path to a clean energy future. The future of the auto industry lies in making cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles that reduce global warming pollution and our dependence on oil.
A triple play
“The new clean car standard being announced tomorrow by President Barack Obama is a triple play – it will help move America off foreign oil, save families money, and spur American businesses to take the lead in developing the job-creating, clean-energy technologies of the future,” said Daniel Weiss, director of Climate Strategy at the Center for American Progress.
“The new standard will dramatically reduce oil use and help make cars go significantly further on a gallon of gas,” he said. “It will also help American car companies make the super-clean cars of the future. And finally, it will help us compete with China, whose leaders have already announced their intention to become the worldwide leader in the production of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.”
The open road awaits
“Automakers are selling 130 models of automobiles that achieve 30 mpg or greater on the highway,” McCurdy said. “Consumers can now test drive 35 models of hybrids or clean diesel in dealer showrooms. More technology is on its way to market.”
Thanks to the proposed new CAFE standards, the American automobile industry will be an exciting place again soon. It’s palpable, a veritable shiny check for chasing. Once the specter of their collapse (and need of a gigantic payday cash loan from the American people) vanishes, America could be heading back to the top of the automobile industry.
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Please tell all the consumers that come in the dorr to my financial institution who buy large pickups or SUV’s just for the heck of it that they need to save gas, cut down on emissions, etc. Even with the values of those types of vehicles in the toilet currently, they just see it is as cheap way to get the big BUBBA truck or SUV they want. It is not always about what they need, but what they want. It took the gas prices to go sky highv to even make any of those people reconsider how much it costs to keep those gas guzzlers on the road.
Wow. That was a completely unbiased story! Glad I found this one. Now I know there is no reason the government shouldn’t raise CAFE standards to 40mpg at least. Heck, why not 50?
This should serve as the challenge to the domestic auto industry. I know a lot of people aren’t going to like it, and for good reason. Certain people DO need full size gas guzzling pickups for their jobs, I know they do. You cannot pull a construction trailer or get to a remote jobsite that’s out in the woods with any hybrid that’s on the road right now. You just can’t. They don’t make a hybrid that can offroad right now, at all. Well, to be fair, there IS the Raser Hummer H3, but that thing isn’t even on the market yet and it will cost close to $100,000. There’s no WAY it will be available to the people who have a definitive need for those kind of rigs, and there had better be some kind of voucher for the appropriate people. Another objection I have is that companies being put in a position where they actually have to cater to the customers who buy their products and give them a reason for existing in the first place, and to have to compete in the marketplace in a manner like this instead of doing everything they can to only enrich shareholders and CEOs is un-American.