Even the automaker lobbying group didn't go this far in their complaints about emission and fuel-economy rules for vehicles in the 2022 through 2025 model years. When the Obama Administration approved final EPA emission rules for those years, the automakers complained that the comment period had been cut short. They didn't seriously suggest that... What will happen to US fuel-economy rules to 2025? Take our Twitter poll
Even the automaker lobbying group didn't go this far in their complaints about emission and fuel-economy rules for vehicles in the 2022 through 2025 model years. When the Obama Administration approved final EPA emission rules for those years, the automakers complained that the comment period had been cut short. They didn't seriously suggest that...
Consumers all over the world, but especially in North America, are buying more crossover utility vehicles and fewer passenger sedans and hatchbacks. The U.S. auto industry makes the bulk of its profits on light trucks, which include crossovers, pickup trucks, and even minivans. The Trump Administration has said it wants to roll back environmental...
Sometimes, when science and technology issues have economic or political consequences, incorrect or misleading information and analyses can be propagated through the media, leading both decision makers and the public astray. A piece published in April by Forbes, covering the effects of the 2022 through 2025 corporate average fuel economy...
As corporate average fuel economy requirements that started in 2012 continue to tighten, automakers have turned to an entire arsenal of tactics to reduce the fuel their vehicles burn. Downsized and turbocharged engines, transmissions with many more gears, lighter-weight structures, better aerodynamics and more all add incrementally to efficiency...
Fuel economy and emission standards have been a contentious issue in recent months as the auto industry and government officials clash over regulations and their potential benefits. Earlier this year, one of the largest pieces of evidence against more stringent fuel economy regulations came from former Ford CEO Mark Fields. Fields told President...
Today's political climate has made for fluid motion in regulations, and corporate average fuel economy targets haven't been left out. Suppliers and automakers have already begun investing heavily into vehicles to be sold in 2022 through 2025, which will include various fuel-saving and emission-reducing technologies. However, that unsettled...
California began regulating vehicle emissions within its boundaries before the Environmental Protection Agency was even a gleam in President Richard Nixon's eye. Since that agency was founded in 1971 with an executive order by Nixon, the state has retained the right to set its own—more stringent—emission rules. Now, under President...
A common refrain among critics of current and future fuel-economy standards is that the need to comply with them produces job cuts in the auto industry. It's a theme picked up by President Donald Trump during a much-publicized visit to Detroit last week. In the hometown of the Big Three U.S. automakers, Trump discussed plans to end what he termed...
One of the challenges of today's uber-polarized political environment is that fear and alarmism increasingly overtake the factual realities of an issue. This appears to be the case with President Donald Trump's Wednesday appearance in Detroit to announce the reopening of the comment period for EPA emission rules for vehicles in model years 2022...
It looks like lobbying pays off, at least in the case of EPA emission rules. According to numerous recent reports, the EPA is expected to reopen the commenting period for vehicle-emission rules it finalized in January, more than a year ahead of schedule. Automaker CEOs and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers had asked President Donald Trump...
Just days after the presidential election, automaker lobbyists urged Donald Trump to loosen pending emissions and fuel-economy standards. Shortly after the election, a lobbying group wrote Trump asking him to change or delay an EPA decision that kept planned emissions standards for 2022 to 2025 in place. Last week, executives of 18 automakers sent...
Among his actions during a whirlwind first week in office, U.S. President Donald Trump met last week with the CEOs of U.S. automakers Fiat Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors. He met on two consecutive days with Mark Fields, CEO of Ford, in fact. Fields was part of a group of manufacturing executives who met with the president separately the day...
With auto-industry lobbyists pushing to have the Trump Administration roll back current and future emission and fuel-economy rules, automakers clearly see the new U.S. regime as more friendly to the needs of business. And it's possible that indeed, the EPA's vehicle emission limits, the NHTSA's fuel-economy rules, and various other regulations (on...