OK, this covers the US companies. What about the imports?
Will this give foreign firms another advantage?
A lot of people will soon be buying and driving “heavy trucks” that look a lot like SUVs.
Some similar headlines: “deal reached to boost CPU speeds”, “deal reached to discover new energy sources”, “deal reached to boost entrepreneurship”
-—full of sound and fury, signifying idiocy-—( sorry, Shakespeare)—
Anything Harry Reid considers good news must be bad news.
And while they're at it, how about outlawing hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes.
Where do these people get the authority to meddle in these matters?
15 percent of their power from wind or solar energy?
Do they expect companies to wave a magic wand and make it happen?
To reach that percent, companies will have to charge vastly more money for utilities service since wind and solar power are vastly less efficient to produce
What about public utilities?
35 mpg CAFE will require lighter weight, less frontal area and/or slower speeds. Into this mix put increasingly tighter crash standards and traditional expectations of passenger room and baggage space.
BMW is working on an add-on steam engine to use waste heat energy going out the exhaust. Since more energy goes out the exhaust than into the transmission, this will be a great help, but will cost $$$.
‘Taint no free lunch, especially in physics!
Mandating that SUVs get 35 MPG will simply cause the auto manufacturers to make smaller SUVs and force those who want a "good old fashioned and safe" real SUV to buy the next vehicle in line that is exempt from the regulations. That is exactly how the SUV became popular and this time it will lead to more people buying very fancy and large Pickup Trucks with a back seat, a small bed that has a very fancy cover that you never take off with access from the cabin. They will give them a nifty name that will infer dual use (haul those heavy loads but give your family a safe, comfortable ride) and they will sell like hotcakes.
They must be joking, right??
Anyone want to guess what 2020 car prices will be averaging? Possibly $40K to $50K or higher?
Liberal
What good things should be done?
Make available resources preform these good things
Conservative
What available resources can be used for good?
Make good works fit available resources
Liberals engage in wish fulfillment
Conservatives look at reality
Everybody missed the biggest giveaway in this bill.
Tax incentives will be given to manufacture fuel efficient vehicles in the US as a concession to the UAW.
The UAW is afraid that if the auto manufacturers are pushed to build more fuel efficient vehicles, they would conduct that manufacture offshore where labor costs are less, hence offsetting the price of the technology required to achieve the higher CAFE standards.
So, the bottom line is this:
Your car will cost thousands more so you can save a few hundred dollars on gas.
The UAW will get job protection in form of taxpayer money that will be used to fund Democrat candidates.
Trucks and SUVs will slowly evaporate while our cars will look more like those driven in Europe.
Why do liberals feel that simply by government saying something “must” be done, that it makes it so?
Might as well say humans “must be able to live without oxygen.”
I really miss my Honda CRX I had for years. It was a 1991 model (the last year they were made) and got 55-60 mpg average. Sure it was a shoebox but for in town stuff it was perfect. Unfortunately, I sold it after being in a near head on collision because I looked around and saw that if I did ever get into an accident I’d probably die.
Pure idiocy. Congress thinks they can sign a document and *SHAZAM*, gas mileage goes up. This is lunacy.
“35 miles per gallon for cars and light trucks, including SUVs, by 2020”
Another case of Congress doing nothing. That’s 13 years away. By then, the industry average will be higher than that anyway. They are just trying to take credit for progress that the market will dictate, and which the market will actually be responsible for.
These target numbers can be reached, but American soccer moms will not buy the products. They will weigh less than half what the current SUVs weigh with tiny engines, possibly diesel. Accel times 0 to 60 in an afternoon.
These SUV-lights will do well in crash tests against similar sized vehicles, but will crumple like a tin can when they hit heavier vehicles.
All in all, think softly sprung, overgrown Citrions.
Reid, Dingell, Pelosi, Karl Lenin....oops, Levin, Feinstein all had plenty to say for public consumption in this article.
Even if the GOP leadership cowards are being shut out in the media, believe me there are ways to by-pass press blackouts, but the lazy, unmotivated or corrupted Republican senators will not make the effort.
We are in 1984, folks.
Leni