CAFE Mit Sahne: EU Greenhouse Targets, Now With New Loopholes

by Bertel Schmitt

April 25th, 2013 8:35 AM

cafe em mit sahne em eu greenhouse targets now with new loopholes

European carmakers, faced with greenhouse gas emission targets much stricter than America’s CAFE rules, can breathe slightly easier. According to Reuters, European politicians backed a compromise deal that keeps stringent targets in place, but that also introduces a loophole: So-called supercredits, gained by making very low emission vehicles, such as electric cars, which nobody actually needs to buy. Quota cars, here we come.

The proposal still needs to be voted on by the full European Parliament and endorsed by member states. The compromise keeps a 2020 emissions limit of 95 grams per kilometer as an average for new EU cars. It even introduces a new 2025 goal in a range of 68-78 g/km. However, it allows manufacturers to use supercredits to partly offset the requirements.

While the U.S. sets mileage targets and the EU sets targets for CO2 output, the two amount largely to the same: Burn less fuel, create less CO2. The standards set by the Obama administration equate to 93 grams of CO2 per kilometer by 2025 for ordinary cars, excluding sport utility vehicles, the International Council on Clean Transportation says.

#BertelSchmitt #CAFE #EU #Green #Supercredits

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11 of 16 comments

Onus on Apr 25, 2013

Sucks for them. We still get the bigger engines here in the US on global cars. I'm surprised the eu is going this far. Their car traffic is much less than here in the US. Their you have a choice to have a car or not. Not so much here.

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- Krhodes1 on Apr 25, 2013
  
  Why do people think this? In many parts of Europe, just like in the US, a car is pretty much a necessity. All of Europe is not London or Paris, just like all of the US is not New York City or Chicago. Good luck living without a car in rural areas. Technically, I could get by without a car too - I live right on a city bus route that can get me to shopping, the interstate bus station, the railroad station (one and the same actually), and the airport. But I don't have hours of my life to waste. Neither do Europeans if they can possibly afford a car, and have a place to keep it.
  
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- Onus on Apr 25, 2013
  
  @krhodes1 The good thing about Europe is you can live near where you work in a city, and not have it be a total crap hole. I know i live in what used to be a city. Only poor people live here. I admit nearly every European i know owns a car. But, nearly every place i have been has efficient public transportation that doesn't require you to wait hours like i often have to do here. The rural areas yes you'll need a car. But, lets be honest rural areas without services are rare. Plus they don't have the suburbia problem that we do. On a side note they didn't have the same hidden racism we did here with White Flight, the reason our cities suck.
  
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- 360joules on Apr 25, 2013
  
  @Onus I'm not trying to be rude, but have you ever been to Europe? White flight from some of the districts of Paris is quite obvious. Or when I was an exchange student in Bremen (northern Germany), I was explicitly & repeatedly warned to stay away from the neighborhoods with Turkish immigrants. A few years ago The Economist had a stat that Paris' population was down 500,000 from it's 1921 peak. The B&B in the UK can attest to the suburban sprawl around London. Even with train & bus service, many of these households have one auto.
  
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NMGOM on Apr 25, 2013

Now that Global Warning is over, and we are entering into the era of Global Cooling, shouldn't we try to burn as much fuel as possible to maintain the Earth's best temperatures? Even if we run out of petroleum fuels in 100 years (barring CNG), we could always keep war with butanol and biodiesel, right? This is April 25th, and there is still snow on the ground in my backyard! What does that tell ya'? -----------------

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- Danio3834 on Apr 25, 2013
  
  The PC term is now "Climate Change". That way, whenever the wind changes direction, blame can still be assigned proportionally where required and the appropriate fees levied.
  
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- Jd418197 on Apr 25, 2013
  
  "This is April 25th, and there is still snow on the ground in my backyard! What does that tell ya’?" That there's no such thing as global warming? Wait, that would be an utterly stupid conclusion. I give up - what?
  
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- VA Terrapin on Apr 26, 2013
  
  You should move to Florida.
  
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CJinSD on Apr 25, 2013

Did industrialization kill the dinosaurs?

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- Th009 on Apr 26, 2013
  
  Apparently not, as I still see them posting here.
  
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Stuki on Apr 26, 2013

Of course in the real world, non of this matters, since no politician has ever kept one single promise more than half an hour. 2020, 2025?? Fat chance any of those yahoos can even count that high. All it amounts to, is progtard hipster whore A trying to outdo colleague B, by claiming his jeans are even skinnier than B's. In the process inadvertently (or not) driving auto makers and other lobbyists to fork more money into campaigns for or against the silliness.

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