NYT: Fuel Economy Plan Is Seen Omitting Rule for Big S.U.V.'s

[DeepModem Mom]

Fuel Economy Plan Is Seen Omitting Rule for Big S.U.V.'s
By DANNY HAKIM
Published: August 16, 2005


DETROIT, Aug. 15 - The Bush administration is expected to abandon a proposal to extend fuel economy regulations to include Hummer H2's and other huge sport utility vehicles, auto industry and other officials say.

The proposal was among a number of potential strategies outlined by the administration in 2003 to overhaul mileage requirements for light trucks - sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and minivans. It had been seen by industry officials as likely to be adopted.

But the impact of the tougher requirements would have been borne almost solely by the increasingly troubled domestic auto industry, a concern for the administration.

Its broad plan to overhaul the light-truck mileage rules would change the regulatory system from one using averaged mileage for an automaker's entire annual light-truck output to one that sets up five or six classes, determined by a vehicle's size.

The rules, the first major rewriting of fuel economy standards since they were created in the 1970's, will be released late this month. They are sure to renew vigorous debate about the nation's dependence on foreign oil, a matter underlined by rapidly rising oil and gas prices....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/16/business/16fuel.html?hp&ex=1124164800&en=617b550c98441bc6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[ThoughtCriminal]

1. Pretty much screws any reasonable plan to reduce oil imports

But $5 a gallon gas will make most of those SUV's storage sheds.

[Catch22Dem]

2. Why do they think more fuel efficient cars/trucks

would HURT the auto industry. Toyota has said it will increase production of hybrids to 25% (for the American market) because the sales are so much better than they ever expected. So why does Detroit claim it would hurt them?

[barb162]

4. I think because of the huge benefit costs that US automakers have,

they can only make big profits with the more expensive gas guzzlers. Japanese automakers don't have the huge pension and medical costs that US firms have because those costs are incurred by the country versus the automakers.

[Coastie for Truth]

8. That's the argument for a government run, single payer system. NT

[barb162]

13. I'll say, but I don't think it will happen in the next few decades

There's still too many people who have decent enough benefits through their jobs that it's not feasible yet. That tipping point hasn't been reached where people are screaming about benefits or lack thereof like they are screaming about gas increases at the pump. To me the health/pension issue is far more important than the gas pump increases.

[Coastie for Truth]

16. But employers are cutting health benefits subtley

1. Have to be on the paytoll longer to be eligible.
2. Higher premiums.
3. Higher co-pays.
4. Higher deductibles.
5. Elimination of Medi-Gap for retirees.

[Coastie for Truth]

7. "NIH" = "Not Invented Here" - Pandemic In the US Auto Industry NT

[TheFarseer]

11. Auto manufacturers

make alot more profit per unit on Hummers than on Grand Ams. The only problem is you'd have to be out of your f*cking mind to buy a Hummer with $2.60 gasoline and climbing. It's not 1972 anymore. It's not even 2002 anymore. Detroit better wake the f*ck up.

[barb162]

14. I think their whole cost structure of building a car is so

conceptually different than the Japanese that they don't know how to get around it, if indeed they can. If GM can make a great Toyota Corolla at the same price as the Japanese, GM still has to tack on its enormous medical insurance costs for its employees and pensioners and the Japanese don't. I think I read somewhere it was about a thousand or more bucks per vehicle to pay the benefits costs

[TheFarseer]

15. Yes, they are fighting uphill because of that

IMO they need to shed those union contracts to be competitive. There is little reason they couldn't do exactly what the Japanese are doing in this country with manufacturing cars if they can do that. But to the point - it won't help them to make Hummers that no one wants to buy. You know it's bad when they are advertising BELOW employee pricing! They better start thinking about a future with high gas prices or those CEOs are going to be burning those Hummers to keep warm in the winter.

[Coastie for Truth]

3. The Macomb County "Reagan Democrats" Argument

But the impact of the tougher requirements would have been borne almost solely by the increasingly troubled domestic auto industry, a concern for the administration.

The argument goes like this - if we in any way seek to either

1) Limit SUV sales, or
2) Increase SUV fuel economy, or
3) Raise CAFE (corporate average fuel economy)

the SUV buyers will abandon Detroit and buy imported SUVs.

The fallacies:

1) Detroit makes the biggest, most gas guzzling SUVs,
2) Detroit makes, roughly, the same size-weight-mileage range of SUVs as foreign manufacturers.
3) So, what are they going to buy?????

Who and what are we talking about here?

1) Macomb County "Reagan Democrats"
2) Who fled Detroit after the first school buses began to roll,
3) With the mind set of their brothers who

The devil with them!

[DS1]

5. Actually, it doesn't matter as much as it used to

people aren't buying nearly as many these days - otherwise they wouldn't have made the H3

[TheFarseer]

6. So does this help at all?

Hummer is the poster child for bad mpg vehicles. This is like trying to round up all the terrorists and ignoring Osama bin Ladin. . . . . . . . . . huh, anyone else see a pattern?

[barb162]

9. Extremely mixed feelings

I don't want to see any more American workers lose their jobs to imports or workers of other countries. The people losing the jobs have nothing to do with designing the cars and making the marketing decisions, they are the factory workers depending on those paychecks to feed their families and need every penny they get..At the same time WE HAVE TO GET THESE DAMNED GUZZLERS OFF THE ROADS!

[hatrack]

10. Well, if the "increasingly troubled domestic auto industry" got a clue . .

and stopped building GIGANTIC FUEL-SWILLING SHITWAGONS, then maybe they wouldn't be in the dire financial staits in which they find themselves.

Oh, but that would be way too obvious, wouldn't it. :eyes:

[niallmac]

12. I think I just figured out what the 'Noble Cause' is.

[nosmokes]

17. the irony is they're killing the outdoors theSUVs are

supposedly made for, although i realise that 90% or more are just glorified station wagons for guys whose penises are too small for them to feel comfortable being seen driving a regular sw or minivan.

[girl gone mad]

18. Um...

"the impact of the tougher requirements would have been borne almost solely by the increasingly troubled domestic auto industry"

Only because these companies have made such short-sighted over the last two decades.

Typical Bush move. Reward incompetence.

[iam]

19. Levy

tariffs. Or institute a single-payer health insurance plan and the playing field is level. Both of those ideas are good plans but are an anathema to conservatism. Conservative ideology has sold this nation to the highest bidder and it sure wasn't you or I. Conservatism is the dark fear we feel when we walk into a darkened room, and it is running this country.

[Koeln]

20. The US auto industry has huge problems

The SUV sector is more or less the only sector where they make profits at the moment but even there they face bigger competition from japanese car makers and in the premium sector from europeans.

GM but also Ford lose money with their car production for years now. They become more and more banks and financial companies with a expensive hobby to produce cars. The debt situation of GM is more than alarming and we will see additional down gradings of their bonds in the near future.

They slept too long and in my view it is very late perhaps too late to wake up.

As a european i can say gas is still cheap in the US compared to europe but the average US car needs much more gas than the cars that people buy in europe (in the US 12,8 against 8,5 litres in Germany per 100 Km)

I am german so it is natural to hate bush but the US auto industry really needs time for consolidation and a new start.

[brainshrub]

21. Welcome to DU.

:toast:

[DeepModem Mom]

22. Welcome to DU, koeln!!!

[speedingbullet]

23. Market

Won't the hallowed free market system take care of these beasts? I am surprised to see so many SUVs on the road, given the gas prices. I suspect people who have them are sort of stuck for now. The smarter ones aren't buying another, let alone a Hummer.

[jarab]

24. kick

...O...

[LiberalUprising]

25. Fuel Economy Plan Seen Omitting Rule for Big S.U.V.'s

DETROIT, Aug. 15 - The Bush administration is expected to abandon a proposal to extend fuel economy regulations to include Hummer H2's and other huge sport utility vehicles, auto industry and other officials say.

The proposal was among a number of potential strategies outlined by the administration in 2003 to overhaul mileage requirements for light trucks - sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and minivans. It had been seen by industry officials as likely to be adopted.

But the impact of the tougher requirements would have been borne almost solely by the increasingly troubled domestic auto industry, a concern for the administration.

Its broad plan to overhaul the light-truck mileage rules would change the regulatory system from one using averaged mileage for an automaker's entire annual light-truck output to one that sets up five or six classes, determined by a vehicle's size.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050816/ZNYT01/508160355

[nashville_brook]

26. why not offer incentive to american auto makers to market cheaper hybrids?

We were SLAVES to BUSH and the OIL WARS
http://johnsoncity.blogspot.com/2005/08/we-were-slaves-to-bush-and-oil-wars.html

I've wanted to "go public" with this for some time, but couldn't. Not until my husband was free.

For the last year and a half we have been prisoners in a massive slave ring -- a vast conspiracy of government and corporate interests employing advanced mind-control techniques designed for nothing less than global domination.