Obama To Nationalize California Emission Standard By 2016
The NY Times is reporting that President Obama will announce new emissions standards tomorrow that are aimed at ending the discrepancy between Californian and national emissions standards. The federal effort will combine California’s emissions standards with the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard, creating a unified national benchmark. This will force OEMs to clean up emissions by 30 percent by 2016, while preventing California from moving the goalposts again, say industry officials. The upshot? By 2016 car offerings must average 42mpg while trucks will face a 26.2mpg average requirement.
“By 2016, the stringency of the national standard will be the same as the (California standard),” a Democratic congressional aide tells the Detroit Free Press. “Before 2016, the requirements in California and at the national level will be different. The automakers were already planning to be in compliance with the California standard in 2014 and 2015, so the difference between the two standards is only important in the early years.” Emissions guidelines have already been written for 2011, so it appears likely that national standards will start ramping up in 2012.
And the OEMs are in no mood to fight the future. In fact, according to the NYT, this announcement may have been pushed up to provide some certainty for the bankrupt (and those who are about to be). Reportedly Detroit was willing to play ball as long as it received certainty on a timetable and a single national standard. Better the devil you know . . . .
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These new rules will just result in smaller, less powerful vehicles. In Europe VW offers the midsize Passat with the 1.4L TSFI engine vs here in the US most midsize cars start out with a 2.5L. We will see alot more diesels (expensive) and fewer large utility vehicles (less choice). So we will have slower, smaller, more expensive vehicles that may not meet our space needs. I see alot of people hanging onto their large vehicles instead of upgrading to something that doesn't meet their needs. And wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the new regulations?
@RedStapler: with the Tesla Roadster getting an EPA gas equivalent of 245mpg mixed, I'm pretty sure that we'll be seeing lots of more EV's and PHEV's (Volt's supposed to get 100mpg, I think) as a result of this legislation. Ford is planning to introduce an EV Transit Connect, presumably to offset F150's and Expeditions. A single "200mpg" van plus a dozen 15mpg trucks would still average out to >27mpg.
I'm having a good laugh, since the majority of cars that I've owned over the past 30 years are four-cylinder vehicles getting at least 30+ mpg. Especially watching all the Johnny-come-lately hypocrites who are all-of-a-sudden trading in their gas-guzzling SUVs for hybrids in a lame attempt to appear "green" (I hate that word) and environmentally friendly... What a bunch of frauds...