Automakers pushing for CAFE alternatives, might call for 36 mpg car standards
In about ten days, US Senators will start to debate raising fuel economy standards. Last month, a Senate panel approved the idea of raising the CAFE standards to 35 mpg by 2020. But not everyone is enthralled with this idea. In fact, Automotive News has got more details on the plan that some automakers are floating to create exemptions in the new, tougher CAFE standards. Auto industry lobbyists say the 35 mpg by 2020 is "extreme and untenable."One alternative, courtesy of Big Auto Senator Carl Levin, is a "car standard of 36 mpg by 2022 and a truck standard of 30 mpg by 2025." While those numbers sound almost as good at 35 by 2020, here's the kicker: "The alternative would enable automakers to avoid fuel economy standards altogether if they could show they were building vehicles with better fuel economy and lower emissions. Levin's office did not say whether he will offer the draft as an alternative or it is merely a work in progress."
The Auto Alliance says it wants to support an alternative to the CAFE standards bill. The environmental lobby is working to close as many loopholes as Levin and the auto industry is trying to put in. We'll be watching this one.
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[Source: Automotive News (subs req'd)]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joseph 2:24PM (6/01/2007)
Honda already has a CAFE of almost 30mpg. Is Honda falling apart and failing as a company in the competitice business of cars? No. So what's stopping other car-makers from doing the same?
Well, it's simple. Making cars is complicated, difficult, expensive, and takes years and years of R&D. But that's too bad, America needs more fuel-efficient cars, and any other way just isn't good enough.
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COINTELPRO 7:56PM (6/01/2007)
Congress is approaching the problem as if it is 1970's. There are plenty of alternatives that could step in (hydrogen, ethanol, electric) to fuel cars. I know the federal government is encouraging production; however, there is no mandates that requires these fuels be available at the pump.
MPG standards is similiar to having a meth addict reduce its use by 20%. At the end of the day, the person is still engaging in a destructive behavior.
Furthermore, any MPG increase will be countered by more cars being on the road.
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C. Sweive 2:37PM (6/16/2007)
Why separate standards for cars and light trucks? Doesn't anyone remember how the gas guzzeling truck craze started in the first place? It was Detroit's answer to getting out of the stiffer CAFE standards placed on cars.
Let's stop being hypocrites. Put the standards on the entire fleet. If Detroit wants to sell 8,000 lb gas guzzeling battering rams, they'll have to bring up the average w/ 50mpg cars.
The only way they could do that would be by artificially lowering the price of the fuel efficent cars and raising the price of the gas guzzelers. That is exacly where we want to be.
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