Cap-and-trade DOA?

Alternative energy tax credits instead

According to CNBC's White House correspondent John Harwood, President Obama is ready to give up on his cap-and-trade program in order to protect his plans for health care. Instead of cap-and-trade, Harwood claimed Obama would focus more on tax incentives for promoting alternative energy. Likewise, I'd assume that if Congress increases CAFE standards based on the EPA's new "health danger" designation regarding CO2 emissions, much of what cap-and-trade would have accomplished for the auto industry can still be achieved.

Could a bailout weaken CAFE standards?

Chevy Cruze delayed

A bailout to help GM and Chrysler merge now seems inevitable. So, why did Cerebrus buy Chrysler? That's right, to make money, and probably at taxpayer expense. Anyway, back to the bailout. It seems there are just too many jobs, healthcare and pension funds at stake for Congress to let the auto industry go under. So, when these companies emerge, one can only assume that means GM will then forever be too big to go under.

Finish: Could a bailout weaken CAFE standards

Automakers using plug-ins for CAFE credits

Tesla hoping to sell its CAFE credits

Foreign oil dependency is choking America, literally, to death. Thus, I've advocated for hybrid cars, even when they don't make financial sense. It's an investment in the future and next generation technologies, such as plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Fortunately, these days, every automaker is planning some kind of plug-in, and that's a good thing. Yet, I worry.

Finish: Automakers using plug-ins for CAFE credits

Liars: CAFE to save Americans $700 per year?

Democrats in Congress are liars

"Democrats said the fuel economy requirements eventually -- when the fleet of gas-miser vehicles are widely on the road -- will save motorists $700 to $1,000 a year in fuel costs. They maintain the overall bill, including more ethanol use and various efficiency requirements and incentives, will reduce U.S. oil demand by 4 million barrels a day by 2030, more than twice the daily imports from the volatile Persian Gulf." (CNN)

Nonsense.

First, how is someone in an SUV going to save $700 per year if their vehicle is going to cost $7,000 more to buy? Americans might be able to buy more fuel efficient vehicles that will save fuel, but they are going to pay more for those vehicles. Does Congress not even understand economics 101? Read more....

Did automakers cry wolf on the hydrogen highway?

Hyundai's Bibendum winning FCEV

There is a rumor in the automotive world that the US auto industry and its lobbyists have long convinced the US Congress and multiple executive branches that CAFE was an inhibitor to fuel cell vehicles and the hydrogen economy. This lobbying effort, the rumor claims, has gone on for decades, although it has weakened since 9/11, Iraq, Katrina, etc.

I don't know whether the rumor is real or not, but I've heard it many times from many different sources.

The real point, however, is that in many circles, such as those rounded out by environmentalists and energy security hawks, the hydrogen economy is now believed to be fiction, something that is always a decade or two away from reality - something I have also believed, until recently. Finish.....

New CAFE bill ready to loophole through Congress

Corn is a political force

The House and Senate are close to approving a CAFE bill calling for 35 mpg by 2020 and, even though ethanol causes more harm than good, ethanol credits will be extended.

"We're very close to a deal," U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Lansing, said in an interview Wednesday. "The bumper sticker aspects of the bill may not be significantly altered, but we are providing enough flexibility and practicality to make this achievable."

In other words, enough loopholes will exist that this legislation will, ultimately, accomplish little in terms of either foreign oil dependency or global warming. By 2020, there will be many more cars on the road and many more drivers which will significantly increase energy consumption.

CAFE is not the answer.

Forget CAFE until at least 2008?

No compromise on CAFE?

"The likelihood of Congress passing legislation by the end of the year to raise the fuel economy of the nation's cars and light trucks is diminishing.

Even as the White House on Friday called for Congress to take action, observers said the odds are low of House and Senate leaders overcoming procedural hurdles to begin work on compromise legislation." More..

Energy security: 55 mph and telecommuting?

The key to energy security?


According to Ed Wallace of BusinessWeek, CAFE is not the best solution to America's energy problems, simply because, even if we raised CAFE to 50 mpg by 2020, it would still take decades to replace our current fleet of automobiles with the new, more fuel efficient fleet.

Thus, Wallace suggests lowering the speed limit to 55 mph and encouraging telecommuting, particularly in the short term.

While an interesting proposal, some of Wallace's numbers seem very sketchy. Finish: Energy Security: 55 mph and telecommuting.

CAFE - Is Toyota losing its Kaizen?

Toyota just loves trucks too much?

Toyota has long made excellent vehicles, but when it comes to the environment, Toyota has always lagged far behind its Japanese rival, Honda. Nevertheless, when Toyota pushed ahead with the Prius, despite mockery from the rest of the automotive world, it seemed the automaker might just be ready to push ahead of Honda.

Then again, it isn't just the Prius, it's all of Toyota's hybrid vehicles.

While most hybrid hype is placed upon the Prius, the Toyota Camry hybrid has quietly become a strong seller itself, a trend that I bet will only pick up pace. Moreover, if Toyota is correct when it claims that the price difference between hybrids and conventional gasoline vehicles will disappear within the next decade, then the Camry hybrid might soon outsell the Prius.

Thus, it's completely dumbfounding that Toyota continues to join the Big 3 against a significant increase in CAFE. If the future is all hybrid, as Toyota claims, and the hybrid price differential will soon end - another Toyota claim - then 35 mpg fleet economy should be a cake-walk by 2020.

So, what's up with Toyota? Does it fear high CAFE standards will destroy U.S. automakers and bring a backlash against foreign autos? Is Toyota still uncertain about the future of hybrids? Or, are the ridiculous profit margins of large, gas-guzzling vehicles just too bloody addictive?

Where's the kaizen?

CAFE: Congress and Detroit - Two peas in a pod?

If the Volt is 'technologically feasible' by 2010, then how can 35 mpg not be?

Congress and Detroit. Two peas in a pod? If there was ever a common element between politicians and automakers, it has to be vision. Or, more precisely, a lack thereof.

O.K., the House of Reps. is going to delay any action regarding fuel economy until Fall - something that will make automakers breathe a little easier the next few months. While automakers show off fancy cars, possibly able to achieve 100 mpg by 2012, they also continue to argue that 35 mpg is not 'technologically feasible' by 2020 - a claim I disputed on Tuesday.

Yet, not only is 35 mpg easily 'technologically feasible' by 2020, it is even more economically feasible than not achieving this higher level of CAFE, according to a new study cited by Edmunds.

"Detroit's automakers would collectively earn $14.4 billion by 2017, the study says, under the toughest standards being considered by Congress: a combined car and truck average of 35 mpg by 2018. The U of M auto brain trust calculates that indexing mileage targets to vehicle size wouldn't penalize Detroit with its truck-heavy lineups the way the existing car and truck standards do. Instead, the domestic automakers would be allowed to aim for a lower target — around 33 mpg — while Japanese rivals that are top-heavy with passenger cars might need to average 38 mpg. "

Why doesn't Congress get off its ass and do something meaningful? Forcing, while helping, Detroit to build as many hybrid cars today, while developing tomorrow's plug-in hybrids, seems to be the best thing Congress could do for Detroit - and America.

So, show some vision already!

No CAFE legislation until fall

House will wait until Fall

Many have predicted that, ultimately, Congress will cave into Detroit and only increase CAFE moderately. Even worse, when any legislation finally hits the books, there will probably be enough loopholes to make any increase mostly ineffective. Regardless, nothing will happen until fall regarding CAFE.

Isn't 35 mpg easily 'technically feasible' by 2020?

Aren't automakers duping consumers?

A 'technically feasible' approach to fuel economy has become the new buzzword among automakers, including Toyota, the king of hybrid cars. Yet, if a Toyota Prius can achieve almost 50 mpg and a Camry hybrid can achieve more than 40 mpg, then why are automakers fighting even 35 mpg as a new CAFE standard?

The new CAFE standards will not even go into effect until 2020. By then, Toyota, for example, will probably be on at least their 5th generation of hybrid technology. Even hybrid late-comers, such as GM and Ford, will have already moved through multiple generations of hybrid technology.

--> Finish: What is 'technically feasible' fuel economy?

Americans want 35 mpg CAFE standard

Pew finds overwhelming support from voters

A survey conducted in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, Michigan, Tennessee and Ohio between July 13 and July 20, found that "almost 90 percent of the 3,900 likely voters surveyed favor requiring the automobile industry to improve fuel efficiency" to 35 mpg by 2018.

Those surveyed believe that increasing fuel economy will both reduce gasoline prices and decrease fuel economy. Most surveyed also do not believe that increasing fuel economy would adversely affect the U.S. economy.

CAFE: It's up to the House?

Can bipartisanship in Senate transfer to the House?

While the CAFE plan passed in the Senate wasn't as strict as many would have liked, it is far better than nothing. Additionally, it was nice to see some bipartisanship for once. Can this sentiment transfer to the House when it takes up the same legislation - probably sometime this Fall?

Sure, there will almost certainly be a plethora of loopholes for automakers to exploit, but at least fuel economy is becoming an important discussion in America. Hopefully, that will push more and and more American consumers to do their part as well.

Already a loophole in new CAFE bill?

Gotta love those folks in Congress!

While there has been a lot of talk in Congress regarding CAFE, fuel economy, global warming, foreign oil dependency, etc., little action has followed. Now, according to Roland Jones, the current legislation aimed at these issues might already be flawed with loopholes before it is even enacted.

While this CAFE plan is not yet law, nor even fully ratified by Congress, it demonstrates that any CAFE-increasing bill will, almost assuredly, prove mostly ineffective.

And, really, who can blame Congress? Most Americans simply care only about the cost of their gasoline, not the costs of gas-guzzling pollution, global warming and foreign oil dependency. Most American, ultimately, are quite content to cheaply guzzle gas forever it seems.

Are Michigan Democrats really Democrats?

Is Nancy Pelosi's biggest problem her own party?

Do Democrats really care about global warming and foreign oil dependency? While the answer to that question seems like a resounding yes, why is it that some Democrats are the BIGGEST laggards regarding real CAFE increases and real action on global warming? Isn't that supposed to be the domain of Big Oil-influenced Republicans?

At some point Democrats might have to ask, "Are Michigan Democrats really Democrats."

John Dingell (D) of Michigan is one of the biggest forces preventing a serious increase in CAFE, even though hybrid cars demonstrate that the CAFE requirements proposed for 2020 are essentially achievable today. Yet, Dingell has ripped....(Finish: CAFE: Can Democrats put Michigan in check?)

Forget hybrids: Senate Approves Detroit-Friendly CAFE plan?

What percentage of Americans really need a bigger SUV than this Escape hybrid?

A Senate panel approved a plan to increase average fleet fuel economy in the U.S. to 35 mpg by 2020. Of course, the plan has yet to be approved by the full Senate and the House has its own plan, so it won't be surprising if the final plan is watered down, especially related to trucks and SUVs - Detroit's moneymakers.

Still, the Ford Escape hybrid can essentially meet 2020's standards, today. The Toyota Prius blows this requirement away, today. Hybrid cars provide the technology to meet this requirement, today.

Between now and 2020...(Finish Forget hybrids: Senate Panel approves Detroit-friendly CAFE plan)