Obama takes aim at climate-warming car emissions

Obama takes aim at climate-warming car emissions: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama took aim at climate-warming greenhouse gases on Tuesday and ordered the struggling auto industry to make more fuel-efficient cars under tough new national standards to cut emissions and increase gas mileage.

Obama said the standards, announced at a White House ceremony attended by auto industry and union leaders, would reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and give five years of cost certainty to an industry battling to survive."

"The status quo is no longer acceptable," Obama said in an announcement that will pressure carmakers to transform and modernize the industry to produce more efficient vehicles.

"We have done little to increase fuel efficiency of America's cars and trucks for decades," he said, calling the standards the start of a transition to a clean energy economy.

Obama has made fighting climate change a priority, and lawmakers in Congress have begun wrangling over a historic bill many hope will provide broader guidelines for controlling greenhouse gas emissions.

Growing public support for efforts to battle climate change and the weakened state of the U.S. auto industry, which is staying afloat through federal bailouts and restructuring at the government's direction, gave Obama a window of opportunity to impose the rules.

Criticism of Obama's announcement was limited, and focused on the higher production costs, the safety concerns created by producing lighter cars and fears from some observers about increasing government involvement in the industry.

"The government is now designing our cars. It's out of the hands of vehicle manufacturers," said auto industry consultant Larry Rinek.

Under the new standards, U.S. passenger vehicles and light trucks must average 35.5 miles per gallon (6.62 litres/100km) by 2016. The current law, approved by the Bush administration, requires a similar gain by 2020.

Obama said the new standards would save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the program -- the equivalent of taking 58 million cars off the road for a year.

The Environmental Protection Agency would regulate and reduce tailpipe emissions for the first time under the standards.

The U.S. Congress does not have to approve the standards, which will be implemented through rules developed by the Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency, which could take more than a year to complete.

HIGHER PRICE TAGS FOR CONSUMERS

The plan was praised by automakers, environmentalists and an array of politicians, but it will mean higher price tags for consumers. The new program will add about $1,300 to the price of producing a vehicle.

Obama said car buyers would recoup the money with the lower fuel costs realized under more efficient mileage standards.

"This is a winning proposition for folks looking to buy a car," he said. "Over the life of a vehicle, the typical driver would save about $2,800 by getting better gas mileage."

The plan could cut deeply into voracious U.S. gasoline demand, dealing another blow to a refining sector hard hit by recession and bracing for more climate legislation.

The White House announcement came as U.S. gasoline prices soared for the second week in a row, with the latest pump cost up 7 cents over the previous week to $2.31 a gallon amid signs of an easing of the recession.

Obama was flanked at the ceremony by executives from 10 automakers and labor leaders. Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, whose state includes the capital of the beleaguered auto industry, Detroit, also attended and embraced the plan for giving the industry cost certainty by setting a uniform national standard.

The plan resolves a long-running dispute between the government and California, which sought a waiver from federal law to impose its own tough standards on emissions. That could have led to a patchwork of different state regulations.

Obama said a series of lawsuits tied to California's efforts would be dropped. California would save money by avoiding the need for a special state compliance program.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who attended the announcement, told reporters the weekend negotiations on the plan were "very intense."

"Then all of a sudden it all clicked and it came together," he said. "It really was a huge battle and the president has brought everyone together and now we're marching forward in the same direction."

The proposal is aimed at cutting climate-warming carbon emissions, which would fall by 900 million metric tons or more than 30 percent over the life of the program.

Let me get this straight.
The auto industry is so starving that they can barley give away cars and that makes it necessary for us the people to give them all kinds of bail outs costing us Billions of dollars.
So now Obama in all his wisdom is going to make the sale of cars harder by making it more expensive to produce and thus buy a car from these very same automakers that are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Of course they will never sell these cars that will not be as safe as older cars with less gas efficiency and lower emission standards. So once again we will see that these automakers will have to be bailed out in the future. Until they sell off to a government run automaker and then all the money that we gave them to continue can be forgotten by the government. Then the company that has investors will not be paying them from the sale because investor money will be washed out as the people in the union are given higher percentage in the new company stocks.

This all makes perfect sense to me

But only if you are really trying to put the auto industry in such a predicament that it can not recover ever.
Force more lay offs.
Hurt the economy more.
Create further debt.
Cause more downward trends in the stock market and hurt recovery efforts.

This is amazing, only in Washington D.C. could America be destroyed like this without the American people demanding those responsible be crushed under the full weight of the United States Military.
But since it is our elected officials doing this .... I guess it must be okay right?