Goverment considers boosting fuel economy requirements to 56 m.p.g. by 2025

[jpak]

http://www.freep.com/article/20110626/BUSINESS01/110626017/Goverment-considers-boosting-fuel-economy-requirements-56-m-p-g-by-2025

WASHINGTON – The White House is ramping up its discussions with automakers and elected officials regarding new fuel economy standards for 2017-2025, and informed Detroit’s automakers in its opening gambit that the government is considering boosting fuel economy requirements to 56 miles per gallon by 2025.

As the Free Press reported last week, a group of 15 Republican former Environmental Protection Agency administrators, governors and members of Congress publicly called on the White House to set a Corporate Average Fuel Economy requirement of more than 60 miles per gallon by 2025– or a 6% increase per year. That target is supported by environmental groups and some officials within the Environmental Protection Agency itself.

Automakers, dealers and others in the auto industry are pushing for a much lower CAFE standard when federal regulators announce the proposed 2017-2025 rules for cars and light trucks in September.

A target of 56 miles per gallon would amount to roughly a 5% increase per year during that period. It will likely to face stiff pushback by the auto industry as the negotiations proceed.

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[Sherman A1]

1. Nice

about 30+ years too late, but it's a start one imagines.

[Kennah]

2. The CAFE standard for passenger cars ...

... started at 18 MPG in 1978 and rose to 27.5 MPG by 1990.

On average, this is an increase of 0.8 MPG per year. Not huge, but it does adhere to the slow and steady gradual school of thought.

Some other car makers missed the CAFE requirements from time to time and paid the fines in those years. However, the Big Three NEVER missed the CAFE requirements. It was a very doable standard, which perhaps leads one to wonder if we weren't far too lax with car makers.

If a 0.8 MPG per year increase had been maintained from 1990 to the present, today in 2011 the standard would be 44.4 MPG for passenger cars, and by 2025 it would be 55.6 MPG.

56 MPG by 2025 might sound harsh, but it conforms to what the car makers accomplished back in the technological dark ages of the 1980s. Today, they can meet and beat this standard, I believe with ease.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Average_Fuel_Economy

[classysassy]

3. The auto makers and the oil producers

are they in bed together?

[classysassy]

4. It seem both of them

are screwing the rest of the world.

[The Croquist]

5. The auto makers want to sell cars

Americans love big cars. It's only when gas prices rise dramatically that they, in a panic, downsize. Detroit bypassed CAFE standards by building on truck frames and people loved them all the way to the poor house.

Maybe 5 years ago I was pumping gas when another customer told me that we had to impeach Bush because of high gas prices. He was driving some kind of huge SUV/Van that I think I could have put my Toyota in the back of. He had no passengers. I wonder if he wants to impeach Obama now?

[txlibdem]

6. The auto makers would be fools if they were

Remember that it was the oil companies who were calling for the death of the US auto makers, were very vocal against the auto company bailouts.

If the auto companies don't remember who their enemies are then they are fools.

[Kennah]

8. Read "Taken For A Ride" by Jack Doyle

The Big Three have been fighting against ANY sort of pollution control or emission standards since the 1950s.

[txlibdem]

7. Easily met if auto makers produce large numbers of electric vehicles

The EPA does not allow a 1:1 computation of electric vehicles in a manufacturers fleet. I think this is discriminating against EVs and makes no sense but it is what it is.

Either way the fuel economy standard won't apply to me because I'll be driving my 2nd or 3rd electric car by 2025. I'll never buy another gasoline car again. I'm putting my money where I believe the market is (and should be) heading.