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Detroit has resisted every regulatory measure aimed at making more energy-efficient cars for decades, but it was particularly successful during the Bush administration. It avoided introducing the fuel-efficient cars the big three manufacture in more tightly regulated Europe, opting for high-margin gas guzzlers for the US domestic market. Now it is paying a fearful price he's right on that count

No he isn't right. You need to learn about the way CAFE operates. CAFE is an acronym for Corporate Average Fuel Economy. This means each corporation must meet the requirement across the board will ALL the Vehicles. The key words are average and corporate. Now a company like Honda which makes only small cars or mostly small cars can easily meet the CAFE standards. But the US car companies sell more large cars, trucks, and SUV's. Why? Because they can actually make a profit on these vehicles. It's nearly impossible to make a profit on a small car in the US given the cost structure the US manufacturers have to work with. When you compare apples to apples, the US manufacturers do just as well on fuel economy as the imports. The US manufacturers resisted the CAFE and wanted a different formula to go by. It's not as simple as what this author has made it out to be.