Obama Adopts CA Standard for Nation: 35 MPG by 2016
By Susie Madrak Tuesday May 19, 2009 10:45am
Excellent news in the fight against global warming as Obama moves up the implementation date on U.S. MPG regulations. This is urgent:
WASHINGTON - Joined by an uncommon alliance of auto executives, union leaders and environmental activists, President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced a national program to cut new vehicle carbon emissions and raise mileage by 30 percent, while also reducing oil needs and changing the kinds of cars Americans buy.
"This gathering is all the more extraordinary for what these diverse groups — despite disparate interests and previous disagreements — have worked together to achieve," Obama said at a White House ceremony. "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."
"The status quo is no longer acceptable," he added. "We have done little to increase fuel efficiency of America's cars and trucks for decades."
Bloomberg reports:
The plan adopts nationwide a standard proposed by California, setting the first-ever U.S. limit on greenhouse-gas pollution from vehicles.
Auto companies and California have signed off on the proposal, ending their feud over the state’s proposed rules. California’s Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson are both planning to attend Obama’s announcement.
“It launches a new beginning,” said David McCurdy, president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, in a statement. “The president has succeeded in bringing three regulatory bodies, 15 states, a dozen automakers and many environmental groups to the table.”
The Washington-based alliance represents 11 carmakers, including GM, Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp.
Obama’s 35.5 mpg standard for 2016 models matches the target set by California under a 2004 state law. It compares with the 27.3 mpg that the U.S. Transportation Department said last month automakers would have to meet for their 2011 models.
A law enacted by Congress in 2007 required automakers to raise fuel-economy standards by at least 40 percent, which would have forced them to meet a target of 35 mpg by 2020.
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I thought that was the standard 28 years ago.
IIRC, Carter raised the mandatory national average from 21mpg to over 23 (23.6?) in '78 or '79, to howls of protest as Chrysler was falling into bankruptcy.
De'ja vu... with a couple of big exceptions.
will likely keep bailing out the auto makers to save the union votes.
Billions spent on GM and they will still fail, look at all the money wasted.
I am sure Obama will be the first to step up to the fuel efficient limo or SUV right? Much like he burned 10's of thousands of gallons of fuel to fly to Iowa or where of "Earth Day" LOL!!!!
Volkswagen is supposedly coming out with a vehicle that gets about 100mpg, next year!
Why can't Detroit make one like that?
I was wrong...it's 200 mpg...
I'm gettin one dammit!
http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1617/69/
We can do it!!
And when we're done we can look up through our triangular sunroofs (such innovation!) at the Asian made personal flying cars that run on human peepee.
It's change that we've lived with.
...by 2016, our standard will finally reach China's 2007 average? M-kay.
European Standards of a decade ago?
Some American hybrids that will may go into production soon still get half the mileage of some European diesels of a few years back.
Wow! USA USA USA USA!!!!! We're number 1 yeaaaaah!
Detroit needs to stop bitching, and do what they always end up doing anyways: import the platforms and engines developed by their overseas filial. It seems when it comes to mechanical engineering... the USA was left in the dust long ago. If the assholes who have no problem outsourcing the few areas where we still have a leadership role: mainly electronics and IT. They should be supporting the few instances in which off-shoring actually makes sense; engine and car platform technology and development.
Yes, and try crashing a Chinese car into anything more substantial than a cardboard box and see what happens to it (and the driver/passengers) M'Kay????
of making the vehicle I want...then fuck 'em.
If they don't or can't make the car people want, people WILL NOT buy them.
I don't even drive and I'm sick of the bullshit. I say fuck em all and break out a GOOD fully electric car. If I had the money and brains, I would have done so years ago.
P.S. Are there people out there still buying hummers?!?
If I were you I'd buy a Chinese car - but be sure to crash it into a cardboard box first. Hopefully you'll survive the accident with your chopsticks intact.
Who knows? Your glove box might even be full of fortune cookies! If the car's a hybrid, the exhaust will smell like Kung Pao Chicken!
in a LONG time. What, are you like 12 or something?
I ain't gonna buy a Chinese car ya jackass!
I want MY country to make PRACTICAL cars, not gas guzzling hot rods and SUV's!
I want to be able to get at least 100mpg in a Ford.
BUT, Detroit has never been able to adapt well to consumer needs, they just pump out flashy new body styles on the same ol' chassis and engines...the only true innovation to come out of Detroit, was from Chrysler, and they're goin bye-bye.
If Detroit cannot adapt, then they're doomed to extinction.
Aren't we supposed to have flying cars by 2015 anyways?
We don't need roads
All the collisions, road kill, black ice deaths, paving over the environment, yeah, I'd like to share ownership of a Jetson's style GPS auto-pilot controlled as-the-crow-flies craft. I'd watched developments at Moller for a while, wish there were more progress toward mass production.
those things have inertial dampening, too.
-- the marriage of autos and flight that will give us true freedom to travel off-road. He shows two things he's working on: the Moller Skycar (a jet + car) and a passenger-friendly hovering disc.
Dude - we can't navigate the roads we have, let alone text each other, talk on our cell phones, put on our makeup and read the morning paper during our commute. How do you think we'll do with NO ROADS to hem us in? Can you say neighborhood goes up in flaming inferno as driver broadsides airborne tanker truck?
Do you think that people in wealthy neighborhoods off the beaten path will want to listen to your flying Harley with straight pipes roaring over their bedroom at 6:30 on a Saturday?
i believe this reveals good leadership by obama. this battle has been going on for years. actually it's been a criticism made at the automakers NOT manufacturing competitive fuel efficient vehicles. NOW they have to adapt to the reality. the automakers have complained and have gone to court in the past well there was a compromise/middle ground today.NOW there's one standard. i say good work president obama.
Really? Holding automakers hostage and bullying them into doing something that again WON'T sell is good?
Isn't the Ford F-150 still one of the best selling vehicle of all time?
Good leadership wouldn't have wasted billions on automaker who still pour through money faster than they can make it.
pathetic, watching him I feel like his TelePrompTer has been hijacked by the writers of the Onion.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...Attack ships on fire off the shores of Orion...I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost...like tears in rain."
What does Rutger Hauer have to do with this?
... what does Bladerunner have to do with any of this?
even HAVE any hammers in it at all?
Have a Hot Pocket and get a grip.
I really need reading glasses, if you want to know the truth.
Bushies teleprompter WAS hijacked by writers for PNAC.
And Obama's pathetic?
Lay off teh kool-aid there skippy.
Wait until a Dem gets in office for blaming him of exactly all the things a GOPer did before? Even when in no way shape or form it is granted, or even remotely apt to do so?
You can blame Obama of many things, being a poor public speaker is not one of them. Not by a long shot, not after suffering the ramblings of a moron, for 8 years, who thought the pinnacle of statemanship was to be able to enunciate less than half of the words in a sentence correctly.
It will be interesting to see how the Rethuglicans react to this breakthrough. Will it be another Luddite moment that further promotes their irrelevancy, or will they figure out that the rules of the game have changed? I'm betting they will continue to be the Party that put "NO" in innovation. They are such losers, allowing themselves to be led around by the nose by the likes of Rush and Sean who set their agenda and create their talking points.
ron christy says better gas mileage means smaller lighter cars -
less safer - and folks won't go along with that...
you've heard it before...
energy exchanges in collisions grow exponentially with speed. At over 40Mph, the differential between an SUV and a normal compact car is not big enough to reduce the risk to the driver of the SUV.
In fact, if you hit a deer at anything over 50Mph you'd be lucky to make out of it alive. And the deer is significantly smaller, flimsier, and slower than even the smallest of imports.
The whole arms race on the highway is what happens when we as a society think it is perfectly reasonable to require 2 tons to transport an asshole.
no one will even look at those pathetic, deathtrap Prius'. LOL
So how do you explain the overwhelming success of Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mini, etc?
... we may catch up someday!
i hope it works out better that the sick-care industries "promises":
Insurance Lobby Reverses Course, Prepares To Smear Key Element Of Obama’s Health Reform
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/19/bcbs-smea...
can't trust 'em... can't trust 'em an inch...
that get 50-60 mpg and do 0-60 in under 6 seconds...
But if this is going to take legislation to go into effect, then it'll be watered down by the time anything gets to Obama's desk...
I know what I want for Christmas.
they would actually GET 35 MPG...
We've got a long, long way to go before the numbers on the sticker are the actual milage of the vehicle.
If you cannot design a vehicle that gets 35mpg, you shouldn't be designing vehicles.
such fucking lofty goals! fluf and goat poop !
That way he can blame other for this failed attempt
35 percent average mileage across the entire fleet produced by the auto industry is a very big deal.
Europeans have already made the switch to advanced turbodiesels that get 45+ MPG.
In Canada, you can buy older JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) vehicles, imported duty-free if they are more than 15 years old. In spite of their age, they tend to be in great shape because Japanese regulations require regular inspections for cars to stay on the road. Because of high fuel prices in Japan, a lot of these vehicles have very low mileage. I'm looking at a 1993 Subaru mini-minivan, in pristine condition, with 4-wheel drive and a 5 speed manual, powered by a supercharged 660cc motor. It has A/C, a big sunroof and gets more than 50 MPG. This is 15-year-old technology.
Okay....so you can buy a 15+ year old used car - or you could just take mass transit. How old is that mass transit technology? And how much more efficient is it than a 15 year old Japan market (but duty free!!) used car?
I appreciate what you're trying to do for the environment, but do you really WANT a 1993 Subaru? I don't care if it has A/C and a big sunroof. Where are you going to get parts? Ride a bike or take mass transit if you're that keen on saving the planet.
My car is 28/35 and it's a 92. I get mostly 30 mpg. My car should be to the new vehicles what hoopty caddies were to mine when it was new -- the big gashog on the block.
!
Mr. Obama 35mpg by 2016? Please hop onto the internets tubes or head on down to a local DC garage to learn about hypermilers that are getting 80mpg using off the shelf or homemade conversions.
There are diesel cars powered by Taco Bell grease that are getting 60mpg. VW has a Jetta that goes 58. There are also a dozen or so electric car manufacturers who cannot obtain government funding because the Big Three effectively lobby them to the sidelines or suck-up bailout money that could go towards R&D. How about 75mpg or maybe 1/2 of all autos manufactured in the USA be mandated hydrogen or natural gas powered by 2016?
Mr. Obama we already knew that you sleep with big business but, now we know you swallow.
Out of curiousity, what do YOU drive? Better still, perhaps you're riding your bike or taking public transit.
Not likely.
...but that's because I live in the UK.
Try it America, your pocketbooks will like it.
Mine does.
Well in order for this to make any sort of impact what so ever..
We need to have solar panels on every single roof of the nation by 2016...
35 MPG is laughable. My old Volkswagen got 32 back in 1974 and today we're getting 48 on average from our Prius.
Obama should aim a lot higher and make it happen in 2 years not 7.
Simply write it on the sticker that is placed in the car windows at the dealerships. It's done all the time and been proven to be nothing more than a lie. Whatever the sticker says it gets in mpg, is usually intentionally higher than what the vehicle realistically gets. Done that way for years.
It's NOT enough.
It should be 50mpg and it should be for 2012. I think Roosevelt would have done more.
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O the car czar and his Obots have done a pretty good job of driving the auto companies out of business in the USA up till now, but this should cinch it... The USA car sales are in the crapper now and all we need is to add another $4-5000 to each car to shut them down completely...
WHO drove them out of business??????
They did this to themselves. As if they couldn't see the writing on the wall 40 years ago - at least.
Dropping their drawers for the Oil companies at the behest of self-serving Re-Thuglic corporatists perhaps wasn't the SMARTEST move they've ever made.
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continue making the same shitty cars they've been making for years?
Yeah...great idea, idiot.
Detroit is on par in manufacturing quality cars with most of the other manufacturers. It is the legacy costs among other things that have driven the Companies into the ground. A reorganization through bankruptcy would allow them to sell off some of the less profitable marques and shed the unions from their backs. Foreign Manufacturers in the USA run a lot leaner and still treat their employees well.
Government has no business in the Manufacturing business or any other private entity. If a Company has to fail, to reorganize and come back stronger, so be it....but it doesn't need big Government to guide it.
just wow.
what are you? 16?
Is there a lot of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere on your planet?
BBC reported that Europe is already getting 35, Their goal is to have 80 around the time we achieve 35. I forget the word BFMTV, Paris, used. I remember it implying "finally less than crazy mileage".
Would be funny but if Europe can achieve 80 when we're getting 35, think about the economic advantage that gives them.
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