[reaganaut1]

I'm disappointed by the automakers' endorsement of the industry's suicide, but the TARP money did not come for free. They won't pay be able to it back, but they will toe the line. A big gas tax to push prices to $4/gallon and force people to buy the small cars Obama wants for them may be coming in a few years -- unless we evict these bums.

[reaganaut1]

ping

[BipolarBob]

WTH is he to arbitrarily set rates or fire CEOs anyway? What happened to by the people and for the people?

[keats5]

Next thing you know the feds will have to restrict family size, because you can only fit so many people in subcompact cars.

[5thGenTexan]

Environmental advocates and industry officials welcomed the new program, an accord that Mr. Obama said “would have been considered impossible” in the past.

It would have been impossible before the Government owned the auto industry.

[EggsAckley]

Will Hussein’s little putt-putts haul a cord of firewood up my hill to my thousand-foot elevation property?

I think not.

[swarthyguy]

EXCELLENT.

Froggie like wasser, wasser all nice and warm.....

And when gastax revenues drop due to alternates and higher efficiencies, bang, mileage fees, MA is going to put a sales tax on gas, or rather, remove the exemption, lol.

SWEET!

[what's up]

This is red meat for the Obowma's leftist base.

They were deserting him last week with his torture shenanigans.

That's why this socialist announcement now, IMHO.

[truthguy]

Say if we can make CAFE standards of 35.5mpg by executive fiat, why not 135.5mpg? Why even stop there. We can just issue an executative order that Cancer and AIDS will be cured by 2016. Why Not?

This is madness, plain and simple. There are already plenty of vehicles out there that get over 35mpg (highway). All people have to do is buy them.

Just when you think this man cannot get any more foolish, he outdoes himself. If anyone here voted for this fool, shame on you.

[EGPWS]

The rules, which will begin to take effect in 2012, will put in place a federal standard for fuel efficiency that is as tough as the California program,...

We all know how well California is doing via government dictate don't we.

[KarlInOhio]

Didn't all the previous CAFE standards have to go through Congress? How does Obama just clap his hands together and say "So let it be written, so let it be done"?

[Man50D]

Socialist translation: We are imposing more regulations on the serfs in order to eliminate more of their freedoms with the goal of replacing the Democratic Republic with socialism.

[b4its2late]

We need to vote the bums out. 4 years of hell will be bad enough.

[Tarpon]

Can we mandate that all New Times employees have to be forced to ride in cars made from recycled tin foil?

[oldenuff2no]

The feds and the state can KMA!!!! I have a couple superdutys that will still be running long after I'm dead. If I have to become a criminal and run red fuel in them so be it.

[bill1952]

How will the masses afford them?

[Spok]

Prediction: by 2016, enough palms will have been greased in the Senate and Congress that these rules will be so full of waivers and special exceptions that the cars and trucks being sold will have exactly the same efficiency as today’s vehicles. Corruption of elected Democrats has become such a non-issue in the media that the only thing federal regulation does is make our lawmakers wealthy; it’s rampant and unchecked.

[apillar]

Get ready to see car lots full of deathtraps with lawnmower engines, that nobody want...

[roses of sharon]

Yikes.....thousands more will die on the highway.

Dead fools for hope and change.

[rwfromkansas]

I still don’t understand how this is an executive issue instead of congressional billl.

However, this seems to provide a clue why Obama can just announce this instead of propose it in Congress.

“In January, Mr. Obama directed the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider the Bush administration’s past rejection of the California application. He also instructed the Transportation Department to draw up rules to complement a 2007 law requiring a 40 percent improvement in mileage for autos and light trucks by 2020. The Bush administration wrote no regulations to enforce the 2007 law.”

It appears it simply is writing regulations to go along with a 2007 law improving mileage.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

To bad someone doesn’t call on Obama to issue an executive order demanding every branch of gov’t meet these standards.
I’m tired of edicts on us mere subjects while our “Leaders” continue on thier merry way. If I’m forced to travel in a tuna can then every Gov’t employee should also.