Free Republic

When Obama unveiled new fuel standards we decried the end of fun cars and pointed out how far most automakers are from meeting new-for-2016 fuel standards. It turns out, thanks to Hummer-sized loopholes like your car's air-conditioning, automakers should be able to meet them with little fear.

That thud you just heard was the “other shoe” dropping in Washington, D.C.: the Obama administration has used the turmoil in the auto industry as an opportunity to nudge—okay, force—the industry into a new, more environmentally sensitive direction, thus making good on its promise to impose stricter Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) and tailpipe emissions standards across the automobile industry. ... Senator after senator cites as evidence for the attainability of these standards the vehicles sold in Europe. But car for car, European vehicles aren't meaningfully more efficient. Take the Ford Focus sedan, a car that's comparably sized here and...

It had taken weeks of hardball negotiations, but on Sunday afternoon, White House officials thought everything was falling into place. In less than 48 hours they would unveil a landmark deal with U.S. automakers to impose sharply higher fuel-efficiency standards on new cars and trucks. Then at 3 p.m., the telephone rang. A senior Ford executive said the company had run the numbers again and concluded it might not survive if it accepted the deal. If Ford pulled out, it would mean a major setback for two of President Obama's signature goals -- combating global warming and reducing the nation's...

The Obama administration’s proposed mileage standards that were announced may kill more Americans at a faster rate than the Iraq War — his signature issue in the 2008 presidential campaign. Obama’s standards will require automakers to meet a 35 miles-per-gallon standard by 2016 — four years earlier than the same standard imposed by the Energy Security and Independence Act of 2007. As discussed in my new book Green Hell, the only way for carmakers to meet these standard is to make smaller, lighter and deadlier cars. The National Academy of Sciences has linked mileage standards with about 2,000 deaths per...

The Obama administration’s proposed mileage standards that will be announced today may kill more Americans at a faster rate than the Iraq War — his signature issue in the 2008 presidential campaign. Obama’s standards will require automakers to meet a 35 miles-per-gallon standard by 2016 — four years earlier than the same standard imposed by the Energy Security and Independence Act of 2007. As discussed in my new book “Green Hell,” the only way for carmakers to meet these standards is to make smaller, lighter and deadlier cars. The National Academy of Sciences has linked mileage standards with about 2,000...

Under Supreme Leader Obama’s directive of ‘I’m in power now, I’ve seized your country to destroy it as I choose and none of you can do anything about it’, new attacks (which could logically be called “hate crimes”) against the American people are in full play. Laughing almost as gleefully during his daily television appearance on Tuesday 19 May—as he probably did while he watched his TV showing the masses in New York running from his flyover 747 and two fighter jets—the US Dictator Obama smiled while delivering the news that essentially said that US citizens will probably no longer...

Can you hear that? It's the sound of the final nail being hammered down onto the coffin lid of the U.S. car industry. President Obama wields the hammer -- in the form of a massive uptick in federally required fuel economy standards that will require each automaker's lineup of new vehicles to achieve an average of 35.5 MPG by 2016. But what could be so bad about forcing the automakers to make cars more fuel efficient? Dig deeper and you'll see. Even the Obama people concede the new mileage standards will cost American consumers about $1,600 per vehicle by 2016...

With his latest installment of ever-higher fuel mileage requirements for the auto industry, Barack Obama embraces a momentary, crisis-spawned expansion of the art of the possible, unleavened by any art of the rationally desirable. Detroit is dependent on Washington loans for survival. The industry's lobbyists and its congressional allies have collapsed in a heap, offering no resistance. So why not go for broke? If you're alone in front of the shrimp buffet, why not eat all the shrimp -- even if it makes you barf later? Defenders of the Obama administration's Chrysler bankruptcy finagle misguidedly argue that, if not for...

President Barack Obama said new government rules designed to boost fuel efficiency and slash greenhouse-gas emissions will give auto makers "clear certainty" at a time when their business is enduring a "historic crisis." "In the past, an agreement such as this would have been considered impossible," Mr. Obama said in a speech in the Rose Garden, where he was joined by auto executives, state governors and car-union officials. "At a time of historic crisis in our auto industry... this rule provides the clear certainty that will allow these companies to plan for a future in which they are building the...

At the end of his Rose Garden explanation yesterday of the new U.S. fuel-efficiency standards, President Obama remarked on the good that can be accomplished when we are "working together." The President may be getting ahead of himself. Watching the unlikely coalition arrayed behind him as Mr. Obama committed the U.S. to an astonishing passenger-car mileage average of 39 miles per gallon by 2016, it looks truer to say we are merely standing together in this adventure, for better or worse. Mr. Obama's fleet-mileage partners yesterday included the two auto companies that have fallen into his arms, Chrysler and GM,...

Excerpts from "New Obama rules will transform US auto fleet" : Carpenters will still haul materials around in pickup trucks, but they will cost more. So business' will get hit with higher costs. Especially small business'. Can our bankrupt car companies afford to sell less of trucks - a best seller? That means cars and trucks on American roads will have to become smaller, lighter and more efficient. "Smaller, lighter" to me means "less safe." I don't care if a Prius meets government standards, you can't change physics. More steel, more weight, more protection. Already on Tuesday, some drivers were...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's new fuel and emission standards for cars and trucks will save billions of barrels of oil but are expected to cost consumers an extra $1,300 per vehicle by the time the plan is complete in 2016. Obama on Tuesday planned to announce the first-ever national emissions limits for vehicles, as well as require an overall or industry average fuel efficiency standard at 35.5 miles per gallon. Carol Browner, the White House energy and climate director, publicly confirmed the new initiative in appearances on morning network news shows, calling it a "truly historic" occasion and saying...

President Obama announced tough new nationwide rules for automobile emissions and mileage standards on Tuesday, embracing standards that California has sought to enact for years over the objections of the auto industry and the Bush administration. “For the first time in history, we have set in motion a national policy aimed at both increasing gas mileage and decreasing greenhouse gas pollution for all new trucks and cars sold in the United States of America,” Mr. Obama said in remarks from Washington, flanked by officials from Michigan and California. The rules, which will begin to take effect in 2012, will put...

The new fuel economy rules announced by the government are more than a challenge; they could end our era of cheap transportation. If they can be met, and that is questionable without some cheating on the rulemaking, cars will be small and expensive--or larger and very expensive. The word coming from Washington is that a 35.5 mile average per gallon requirement will be set for vehicles by 2016, meaning something like 43 miles per gallon for cars and 26 miles per gallon for trucks. Rules are easy to make. Companies like General Motors ( GM - news - people )...

I didn’t realize the socialist horror of what the administration has done until I got to the end of the Bob Lonsberry’s article, “Government Wrong To Hose Car Dealers.” Then, I realized the author had missed the central point. Lonsberry fails to understand who finances the auto manufacturers; the dealerships. By destroying the manufacturer’s financing arm Obama destroys any possibility that the manufacturers can ever recover. Government support, and, therefore, control, will be required forever. Here’s how the pre-Obama financing system functions. Let’s say your dealership sells 100 cars a month. You keep an inventory of 200 cars on-hand. The...

– Some soccer moms will have to give up hulking SUVs. Carpenters will still haul materials around in pickup trucks, but they will cost more.

Obama unveils 'historic' car efficiency standards by Stephen Collinson Tue May 19, 5:06 pm ET WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama Tuesday unveiled "historic" efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for US cars, forging a rare moment of unity between auto firms and environmentalists on climate change. "For the first time in history, we have set in motion a national policy aimed at both increasing gas mileage and decreasing green house gas pollution for all new trucks and cars sold in the United States," Obama said. The president gathered 10 auto industry chiefs, from crippled US firms to foreign giants, plus...

President Obama plans to propose the first-ever national emission limits for cars and trucks as well as average mileage requirements of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016 -- all costing consumers an extra $1,300 per vehicle. Obama's plan couples for the first time pollution reduction from vehicle tailpipes with increased efficiency on the road. It would save 1.8 billion barrels of oil through 2016 and would be the environmental equivalent to taking 177 million cars off the road, senior administration officials said Monday night. The plan also would effectively end a feud between automakers and statehouses over emission standards --...

According to reports in The New York Times and elsewhere, President Barack Obama will resolve conflicts between state and Federal fuel economy standards by announcing that California's stricter limits will be applied nationwide. By the 2016 model year, new rules will require each carmaker's Corporate Average Fleet Economy (CAFE) to reach 42 miles per gallon, weighted by sales. That is the level effectively required by California's limits on greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide.

The Obama administration will issue new national requirements for the emissions and mileage of cars and light trucks in an effort to end a long-running conflict among the states, the federal government and auto manufacturers, industry officials said Monday. President Obama will announce as early as Tuesday that he will combine California’s tough new auto-emissions rules with the existing corporate average fuel economy standard to create a single new national standard, the officials said. As a result, cars and light trucks sold in the United States will be roughly 30 percent cleaner and more fuel-efficient by 2016. The White House...