Auto industry backs CAFÉ deal

[BeatleBoot]

Source: The Detroit News

Auto industry backs CAFÉ deal

David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Automakers on Saturday endorsed a landmark compromise bill reached Friday that will hike fuel economy requirements by 40 percent by 2020 to an industry fleet average of 35 miles per gallon.

The House is expected to vote Wednesday on the measure as part of a broader energy bill and the Senate is expected to take it up before it adjourns for the year later this month.

The agreement represents the first dramatic overhaul to fuel economy rules since they were introduced in 1975 and comes after months of opposition from the industry.

Automakers, which have successfully blocked raising passenger car standards for more than two decades, objected to a 40 percent increase, saying it would cost them billions to comply and could force them to make fewer of their biggest, most profitable models.













Read more: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071202/AUTO01/712020352

[ulysses]

1. wonder what the sweetener was.

13 years is a nice long stretch of time.

[kirby]

4. They can still play games...

My understanding is that Dingell got his way allowing Detroit to continue with the 'light truck' vs 'passenger car' distinction. This loophole which was originally meant to exempt work trucks morphed into the truck/SUV category, withs its relaxes standards, that is so large today.

[ulysses]

5. yup.

Enough wiggle room through which to drive a Hummer, I'd imagine.

[yourout]

2. My guess is they know they have a pocket veto from Bushco.

So they can sound all caring and wonderful while laughing behind our backs.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. "CAFÉ", not "CAFE"?

What's that - standards on the number of cup-holders?

[BeatleBoot]

6. You may want to ask the newspaper, bub.

Copied it straight from there.

[NovaNardis]

8. That's so strange

It only has the accent mark in the title of the story.

[Psephos]

9. lol

That's what you get when lazy editors use automatic spell-checkers and accept the changes without looking at them.

[underpants]

7. Kicking and screaming-they don't have a choice

I still have no idea why they wouldn't try to make the best product they can.

[AdHocSolver]

10. As usual, the Wizard of Oz wins again.

Where to begin?

The current fleet fuel economy calculates to 25 miles per gallon, using their figures. That is optimistic and misleading. It is optimistic because driving tests have shown that the anticipated fuel economy for cars issued by the government is very optimistic. I will be generous and say that a more realistic current fuel economy value is 20 MPG.

It is misleading because it does not include SUV's and other vehicles built on truck chasses. If they were included in the current fuel economy value, the actual value would be less than 20 MPG.

By 2020, the demand for fuel world-wide will have increased so much, and the availability of cheap oil so diminished, that the cost of fuel will be much higher than it is now. Since the oil companies and the American car companies are all owned by the same people anyway, scads of profits will be available to be shared, even with somewhat greater fuel economy.

The same amount of increased fuel economy could be easily achieved with current technology within five to eight years (just long enough for a large number of consumers to replace their current gas guzzlers). If truck-based SUV's are still exempt from the fuel economy standards, then there will be little overall savings of fuel.

The technology exists today to do better than a 40 percent increase in fuel mileage. The technology has existed for the past 15 years to already have increased fuel mileage standards by 40 percent. If the auto companies had begun this process 15 years ago, we would have much greater oil reserves today, gas prices would be much lower due to lower demand, global climate change might be much less of a threat, and the cost of food and everything else would be less.

The most telling comment is that they oppose these standards because it would cost them profit if they can't sell their biggest gas guzzlers. Their profit is more important than the welfare of the American people and the survival of civilization on this planet. Moreover, we are supposed to agree with that premise. So our Congress critters once again sell us out to the corporations.