Free Republic

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Transportation Department is expected to declare that fuel economy rules issued under then President Joe Biden exceeded the government's legal authority by including electric vehicles in setting the rules, automakers said on Monday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the department's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday submitted its interpretive rule, "Resetting the Corporate Average Fuel Economy Program" to the White House for review. He said in a statement the prior administration had "illegally used CAFE standards as a backdoor electric vehicle mandate – driving the price of cars up."

Public comments submitted to the NHTSA warn that combined with other proposed rules, the new fuel efficiency standards will have the effect of banning gas-powered cars. Other arguments against the proposed rules include concerns about increased reliance on electric vehicles placing a burdensome demand on the national electric grid. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Adeluge of comments were dropped on the Biden administration concerning its proposed fuel economy standards, many of them saying that the rules exceed statutory authority, won’t save consumers money, will hurt the automotive industry, and could impact national security. By the time the comment period closed this fall, the National...

In addition to the general price comparison of all-electric cars in the U.S., let's take a look at another metric - price per mile of range. There is no change in the first few places since we last checked in September 2021, but there are new models that are surprisingly high in the ranks. In this post, we compare the base prices (MSRP plus obligatory destination charge) and EPA Combined range - the only common metrics that we have for the U.S. BEV market. For reference, we include also the price per mile after applying the federal tax credit of...

WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) is pressing President Joe Biden's administration and a U.S. appeals court to move quickly to hike civil penalties for automakers failing to meet fuel economy requirements. Electric vehicle maker Tesla sells credits to other automakers to help them meet government vehicle emissions requirements, and says those credits are less valuable due to changes in rules made by former President Donald Trump's administration. Tesla met virtually on Aug. 30 with officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), according to a document filed by the agency last week. On Aug. 18, the...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The smaller, lighter vehicles that women more often drive, and the types of crashes they get into, may explain why they are much more likely to suffer a serious injury in a collision than men, a new study published Thursday found. Researchers from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group supported by auto insurers, looked into whether there was some sort of gender bias in the research into vehicle crashes or whether body type had anything to do with the injuries. They analyzed injuries of men and women in police-reported tow-away front and side...

President Biden can’t mandate that we all drive electric cars, but he’s opening the gates to an electric Trojan horse. In a day-one executive order, Mr. Biden began the process of rescinding a Trump administration rule, the first step toward greenlighting California’s electric car agenda. California and like-minded states plan to impose electric cars through production quotas—whether drivers want the cars or not. California regulators call it a “zero-emissions vehicle” standard, but green propaganda shouldn’t obscure what’s really going on. Start with federal law. It requires the transportation secretary to set national average fuel-economy performance standards for car makers at...

... The 1970 Clean Air Act prohibits states from regulating tailpipe emissions, but it allows California to request a waiver to “meet compelling and extraordinary conditions.” This waiver authority was intended to help California reduce tailpipe pollutants such as NOx and sulphur that contribute to smog. The LA haze in those days could be as thick as San Francisco’s fog. Yet the Obama Administration in 2009 issued California a waiver to regulate greenhouse gas emissions despite the lack of legal or environmental justification. The Energy Policy and Conservation Act pre-empts state regulations of fuel economy, and CO2 emissions don’t cause...

The Trump administration is poised to revoke California's authority to set auto mileage standards, asserting that only the federal government has the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy. Conservative and free-market groups have been asked to attend a formal announcement of the rollback set for Wednesday afternoon at Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington. Gloria Bergquist, spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said Tuesday that her group was among those invited to the event featuring EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. The move comes after the Justice Department recently opened an antitrust investigation...

A high-speed transit system through the mountain corridor could serve as a major economic boon to communities on the Western Slope, according to a new study recently published by Development Research Partners. A high-speed transit system — likely in the form of a train that would carry passengers and light freight between Denver International Airport and Eagle County Regional Airport — was listed in the 2011 Record of Decision issued by the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Federal Highways Administration as a potential long-term solution to dealing with congestion on Interstate 70. Late last year, stakeholders — including the...

The Trump administration is moving forward with a proposal to revoke part of California’s authority to set its own automobile gas mileage standards, a government official said Thursday, confronting a state that has repeatedly challenged the administration’s environmental rollbacks. The Environmental Protection Agency was preparing paperwork for the White House for the move, meant to help the administration set a single, less rigorous mileage standard enforceable nationwide, according to the official, who is familiar with the regulatory process and spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been made public. President Donald Trump has pushed for months to...

Buying a new car is almost always a daunting task, with salespeople trying to sell that extra warranty or undercarriage rustproofing. And, to add insult to the process of buying a new car, federal bureaucrats regularly tack on rules that jack up prices for consumers. In fact, average prices for new cars are nearing $40,000. But, that staggering high amount may soon fall due to the Trump administration’s ambitious drive to roll back onerous rules. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in the process of freezing, or at least slowing, Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for cars, unshackling vehicles...

NEW ORLEANS—Sterling Burnett doesn’t always want to sit next to someone he doesn’t know on a train, plane, or bus. But he’s willing to fight for the freedom of those same strangers when it comes time for them to purchase a motor vehicle. “What I care about is … your freedom to choose the vehicle of your choice,” Burnett, an environmental policy expert for the Heartland Institute, said during a panel discussion at the free-market think tank’s America First Energy Conference that took a critical look at fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks. “I don’t think government should be in...

2018 Detroit Auto Show: Achates, Aramco Launch 37-MPG Pickup Engine John O'Dell January 15, 2018 Auto Shows, Detroit Auto Show Achates Power and Aramco Services have outfitted a Ford F150 with Achates' new compression-ignition, gasoline powered, opposed-piston engine the company says will deliver 37 mpg fuel economy without hurting truck's working capabilities. (Photo: Achates) FacebookTwitterLinkedInE-mailReddit The developers of a gasoline-engine pickup on display at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit hope to enter the national conversation on fuel efficiency and emissions reductions.Achates Power, a California-based engine developer, and Aramco Services, the transportation-focused U.S. arm of Saudi Arabian Oil...

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, took issue Wednesday with reports that the White House will move away from Obama-era fuel economy emissions standards for model year 2022 to 2025 cars and light trucks, saying it's "the wrong way to go for our security, economy and environment." The Massachusetts Democrat, who sits on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, spoke out against the proposed rollback shortly before President Donald Trump was expected to direct the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its conclusion that car makers could meet the strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Contending that gas prices are "the...

Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ruled that existing emissions limits for passenger cars for 2022 through 2025 should remain in place. It's a decision that is already opposed by lobbyists representing the auto industry, and possibly by the incoming Trump Administration. Sure enough, one automaker says it has already begun talks with President-elect Donald Trump that include a request for lower emissions targets.

Crony Capitalism: Not content with the billions it gets in government help, Tesla Motors now wants tougher fuel economy standards that would cripple its competitors. Is this what passes for entrepreneurship today? In 2012, President Obama announced a new "Corporate Average Fuel Economy" standard that will require all the cars each automaker sells to get an average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Given the lead time that automakers need to design and test new cars, they now have only a few years to figure out how to achieve that goal. And since there are only a couple non-plug-in cars...

Central Planning: Recent sales data show that consumers don't want electric cars. Too bad, since President Obama has put in place regulations that will effectively force the public to buy them in the not-too-distant future.

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Roofs made of carbon fiber. Plastic windshields. Bumpers fashioned out of aluminum foam. What sounds like a science experiment could be your next car. While hybrids and electrics may grab the headlines, the real frontier in fuel economy is the switch to lighter materials. Automakers have been experimenting for decades with lightweighting, as the practice is known, but the effort is gaining urgency with the adoption of tougher gas mileage standards. To meet the government's goal of nearly doubling average fuel economy to 45 mpg by 2025, cars need to lose some serious pounds.

Fuel economy standards for the year 2025 have now been set, as the government released the finalized CAFE regulations, in a massive tome totaling 1,994 pages in PDF form The full document is available here. I’d be lying if I said I had come anywhere close to completing it…think of the longest novel you’ve ever read and extract all the amazing prose, gripping scenes and moving themes, and that’s basically the CAFE regulation, with another 1,000 pages thrown on top of that. Anyone who has taken a peak is more than welcome to comment. In the mean time, I’ll be...

The Obama Administration’s new fuel economy standards will result in the retail price of average motor vehicles to increase over $11,000, according to a study conducted by the Center for Automotive Research. --------------------------------------------------------- The Obama administration’s new fuel economy standards would require automakers to produce cars and light trucks with an average fuel economy of 54.5 mpg by 2025. The Center for Automotive Research says their study is “the result of 11 months of effort and investigation by researchers at CAR in 2010-2011.”