In another break from the failed Bush policies, today President Obama is expected to direct federal regulators to allow an application by California and 13 other states to set strict automobile emission and fuel efficiency standards.

Known as the “Californian waiver” under the Clean Air Act, it would allow Californian and 13 others to set their own emission and fuel efficiency standards.

Together these 14 states account for about half of the American market for cars and light trucks. The move had been vehemently opposed by the auto industry who argued they would have to make one set of more fuel efficient vehicles for California and another set for everyone else.

Charles Territo, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, criticised Obama’s plans saying. “Applying California standards to several different states would create a complex, confusing and very difficult situation for manufacturers”.

The industry obviously couldn’t be intelligent enough to think that – hey – they could just make one lot of more fuel efficient vehicles and stay with the curve of increasing environmental consciousness and the credit crunch. But no it is an industry with its head firmly in the sand.

As the New York Times reports today “Granting California and the other states the right to regulate tailpipe emissions would be one of the most emphatic actions Mr. Obama could take to quickly put his stamp on environmental policy.”

Although Obama will not order the policy reversal, EPA regulators are widely expected to go through with them. Once this is so, car manufacturers would have begin producing and selling cars and trucks that get higher mileage than the national standard, coupled with a faster phase in.

Beyond acting on the California emissions law, officials said, Mr. Obama will also direct the Transportation Department to quickly finalize interim nationwide regulations requiring the automobile industry to increase fuel efficiency standards to comply with a 2007 law.  Again these were rules that the Bush Administration decided not to issue.

Some are tripping over themelseves to laud the new President. Daniel J. Weiss, director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress in Washington argues:  “This is a complete reversal of President Bush’s policy of censoring or ignoring global warming science. With the fuel economy measures and clean energy investments in the recovery package, President Obama has done more in one week to reduce oil dependence and global warming than George Bush did in eight years.”

But let’s not get too carried away. Yes it is a good first start and shows clear political intent. But the result would be an increase in fuel efficiency in the American car and light truck fleet to roughly 35 miles per gallon from the current average of 27, and to do so four years ahead of schedule from recent legislation. It would require automakers to cut emissions by nearly a third by 2016, four years ahead of the federal timetable.

But Obama himself has argued that fuel efficiency standards should rise to 40 mpg. But even that is nothing revolutionary. Europe is trying to achieve 47 mpg by 2012.   Even that is harldy cutting edge. I remember 15 years ago the man from Volvo saying his LCP 2000 prototype could do 100 mpg.

Obama calling for 100 mpg by 2020, now that really would be the audacity of hope.

One Comment

  • Do you really think pushing an already defunk industry to produce an efficiency four years ahead of an already reasonable schedule will empower them to succeed and stay afloat as a viable, stable, profitable company? Plus, did you stop and think that these cars will most certainly (and this is a fact) cost anywhere from 2 to 10 thousand dollars more than regular cars? In a time of high unemployment and a struggling economy, this would render any bailout or socialized effort null and void, causing whatever-trillions pumped into the economy to be for naught.

    We need to give them tougher standards, yes, but at a realistic pace. Plus, do so in such a way that allows them to price these vehicles so that they are affordable. Did you ever learn of the concept of inflation? Moreover, did you ever learn what can cause inflation? A standard 2 to 10 thousand dollar increase in car price on every vehicle will, without question, cause high, irreverisble inflation, while putting undue stree on blue collar families who are seriously struggling in this economy.

    Having two sets of stanards for different states, before 2016, is too much for the automotive industry to handle. Plus, having states mandate how many of what kinds of cars can be sold in-state will horribly distort local car-markets again to the detriment of low to lower-middle class families. Again, did you ever take an economics course? This time I’m not talking about money and business, I’m talking about simple cause-and-effect. You can’t just push for wonderful standards and plush, green, eco-friendly, global warming theories to dictate actual laws and regulations without there being a CONSEQUENCE. Yes, for our air quality it would have a positive consequence, but what about ALL the other consequence which will be born from these decisions? Sensability is key in these uncerain times. Yes, change should come, but at an appropriate pace. At a pace that will make certain that the change coming will not cause more harms than good.

    And oh, all car manufacturers should just make more fuel efficient cars to conform with California anyways? Do you know what all is required for a new car to go from scribble on a napkin to show-room floor? Hmmm, apparently not. It takes years to design, test, and then get the newly tested-design to pass all government regulations. Then you have to re-tool your factories. That takes more designing and testing, and since everything is very robotic, there is a lot of software and hardware engineering that must first take place (more designing and testing). Then, you must retrain the human workers in the factories (again, you must design and implement these retraining programs) and finally test that the new manufacturing process can produce virtually defect-free cars, every time. Not to mention the expensive ad-campaigns and the physical transport of the millions of new cars to millions of dealerships around the country. Yes, this all can and should be done in the effort to lower our international dependency of foreign oil. But, as to my point earlier, cause-and-effect should be taken into consideration when we expect unrealistic change (fueled by even more unrealistic regulations) to happen quicker and quicker. So, the cost of making every car meet California standards (or even producing two sets of efficient cars to California-standard states) by the deadlines they are discussing is (again, another economic fact:) simply too much for them to handle. That will absolutely put them all out of business in the American market.

    In summation: Think. Please mix your eco-friendly ideas with current facts to produce realistic and truly helpful ideas. Please, just think.

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