Obama to raise CAFE standards

[babylonsister]

http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/05/18/obama-to-raise-cafe-standards/

Obama to raise CAFE standards
@ 2:50 pm by Eric Zimmermann


President Obama will significantly increase Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, possibly as early as tomorrow.

The NY Times reports that Obama will combine the more stringent mileage standards California has adopted with existing CAFE standards to create a single, national standard. Environmentalists will be pleased with the higher targets, while automakers have long sought a national standard.

Mileage standards will rise 30% by 2016 under the new rules, which demand 42 MPG for cars and 26.2 MPG for light trucks.

From the Times:

"This is a very big deal," said Daniel Becker of the Safe Climate Campaign, a group that has pushed for tougher mileage and emissions standards with the goal of curbing the heat-trapping gases that have been linked to global warming. "This is the single biggest step the American government has ever taken to cut greenhouse-gas emissions."

Industry officials spoke on condition of anonymity about the program because they said they did not want to comment publicly in advance of the White House announcement.

The current standards are 27.5 miles a gallon for cars and about 24 miles a gallon for trucks. The new mileage and emissions rules will gradually tighten, beginning with 2011 models, until they reach the 2016 standards.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Are your super SUV's

classed as cars or light trucks ?

[HopeHoops]

3. I don't know about your state, but in PA, an H2 has a car license plate.

That's also true for the Ford Exploder, and other luxury model bullshit-mobiles. They do NOT have truck plates unless the owner has a reason to tag them that way. The CAFE rules classify them as such for mileage. That's what sucks.

[dipsydoodle]

4. My state ?

I'm english in the UK.....lol. Hence the question but that was what I meant the answer to which is that the mileage bit treats them as trucks.........is that right ? If yes then that is a serious loophole.

[HopeHoops]

5. Oh, so you don't have that bullshit to deal with!

Yeah, it was a GOP trick on behalf of the oil companies. Bastards.

[HopeHoops]

2. Good - the egg salad in my cafe has been SERIOUSLY sub-standard for years!

On a serious note, allowing SUVs to be classified as trucks killed the full-size station wagon. My 1984 Colony Park got about 20 MPG on the highway and NO SUV could touch that (and I don't think any of them can now - not the truck frame ones)! I don't think any of the ones that came out in the 90's ever got that, even the early cross-overs. Fuck the SUVs - bring back the wagons. Actually, that ugly thing with a stupid name that Ford recently came out with sort of looks like a full-size wagon. I don't like the style, but it is a similar vehicle. You can't even fit a 4x8 sheet of plywood in an SUV - my wagon could hold that with 8" of room to spare. Curiously, my Pontiac Montana can hold full 4x8 sheets also - and it gets 26 MPG highway and can blow the silly little rice rockets off the line as well.

If they put the SUVs in the CAFE calculations, the roads will be safer for everyone and the air will be cleaner because it will help with the demise of that bastardization of automotive technology. Henry Ford would puke if he came back to life, saw a Hummer, and was informed that he was in some way responsible for that abomination.