Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards are being implemented by the decree of President Obama, at the behest of America's left-wing environmentalists.  Small cars will be the only cars available under Obama's plan.  Individual liberty and consumer freedom have been displaced by rabid irrational environmentalism, mostly in an effort to "save the Earth," which is a delusional goal in itself.  America has plenty of petroleum and natural gas available, which could be turned into affordable gasoline, if these same environmentalists would just get out of the way and let the oil companies produce it.

Of course, President Obama will still travel in a multi-car motorcade wherever he goes, unless he's in a helicopter or a jumbo jet, so the new standards are for us, not for him.

For years, it has been widely known that small cars are inherently more unsafe than larger vehicles.  Inevitably, more people will die on America's highways as a result of this misguided policy.  The people who are pushing this nonsense, in many cases, are the same people who used to chant "No blood for oil" during the recent wars in Iraq.

If and when cars are built that can actually get 54½ mpg, as the rules prescribe for 2025, such cars will be very light, very small, and very weak.  It will be a major accomplishment to get onto a freeway (uphill and against the wind) without impeding traffic or causing a wreck.  I drive my 2010 Hyundai sub-compact very gently and can only get about 32 mpg in city commuting, with the air conditioner off.

This tells me that the goal of 54½ mpg is unattainable.  There just isn't that much energy available from a gallon of gasoline.  Gas mileage that high is not something that can be decreed, because it exceeds the limits of chemistry.

If you can buy a car in 2025 that gets 54 mpg, don't be surprised if it only has three wheels.  You will probably find that the entire car is made of plastic and carbon fiber, the engine will quit when you stop at a traffic light, and the car will probably have great difficulty going uphill, which means it will be a challenge to get in and out of a parking garage — or Colorado.

Ethanol makes matters worse, because it has less energy available per gallon than gasoline or diesel, and ethanol diminishes the world's food supply in the process.

And here's the worst part of the story:  The constant push for higher gas mileage, fuel conservation, ethanol, and electric cars is all because the left-wing environmentalists oppose all forms of energy production in this country, and refineries, and the pipelines that carry oil from the well to the refinery.  We're going to great lengths to conserve oil and gas at a moment in history when the production of oil is getting easier, and we're finding more and more oil in the United States.  The production of domestic oil and gas would drive the world-wide price of oil down.  Alaska is floating on oil, but it's illegal to drill there because of the environmentalists.  If the left-wing tax-and-spend Democrats and their earth-worshiping hippie friends would just get out of the way, gasoline would cost half as much as it does today.

The Latest On The Federal War Against Internal Combustion Vehicles.  I'm old enough to remember a time when there were serious environmental concerns with internal combustion engine vehicles. [...] But gradually that all got cleaned up.  Today the bona fide serious environmental concerns about internal combustion engines are far in the past.  But the war to eliminate them — supposedly on environmental grounds — is just ramping up.  The Biden Administration is all in with the plan to get rid of the ICE car.  Why?  It seems to have something to do with the non-existent "climate crisis."  Meanwhile, Congress has passed no legislation authorizing the executive agencies to force ICE vehicles off the market.  Nor is the Administration honest enough to admit that they are engaged in outlawing the vehicles that 90+% of the people drive.  Instead we get massive and thoroughly dishonest regulations effectively forcing the approaching end of the ICE vehicle without ever directly saying so.

Cars Used To Make Us Happy.  Muscle cars date from the days of 30 cents per gallon gasoline, and in those days it was 100 octane.  The combination of low purchase cost (a Plymouth Barracuda with a Hemi engine cost $4,000), operating cost, style, and performance made them a deal that no longer exists.  Today's cars are loaded down with electronics and "safety" that you don't need and that is difficult to live with and costly.  If the tire pressure in my safe car drops from 32 to 31 on come warning lights and notices on my screen.  You have to go through a pointless exercise and then spend half an hour figuring out how to turn off the warning indicators.  Moreover, the accepted safety style comes from federal safety bureaucrats.  Consequently, unless you can see the Mercedes star, you can't tell one from a Toyota.  Today all cars look alike.  And you have 4 color choices — white, black, gray, and a dark red.

Another bad idea:  Touchscreens in cars.  In 2018 when my car was built, Audi was building cars with features controlled with a simple and intuitive driver interface.  One could navigate through systems with tactile controls requiring minimal distraction from the road.  For the 2020 model year, the engineers at Ingolstadt decided that touch screens would become the new control method in Audi interiors.  Many of the physical buttons were removed.  Controls are now in the center screen, activated by pushing on a flat panel without any haptic feedback.  In many cases, previously simple tasks are now buried behind several menus.

The Editor says...
To achieve high gas mileage, everything in the car has to be flimsy and lightweight.  To keep the profits high, and the shareholders happy, everything has to be cheap.  Flimsy and cheap.  Thanks, Democrats!

Mandate for Leadership.  [Scroll down to page 626]  One reason for the high numbers of injuries on American roadways is that national fuel economy standards raise the price of cars, disincentivizing people from purchasing newer, safer vehicles.  Congress requires the Secretary of Transportation to set national fuel economy standards for new motor vehicles sold in the United States.  This mandate was established in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA), a law passed in the wake of the Arab oil embargo to promote greater energy efficiency and lessen the national security threat of U.S. dependence on foreign oil.  The statute directs DOT to prescribe the "maximum feasible" mileage requirements for different categories of internal-combustion engine (ICE) automobiles for each model year.  The standards must be achievable using available ICE technologies running on gasoline, diesel fuel, or similar combustible fuels and must not be set so high as to prevent automakers from profitably producing new vehicles at sufficient volume to meet consumer demand.  Congress recognized that the ICE-powered automobile has been instrumental to advancing the mobility and prosperity of the American people and that the domestic mass production of new ICE vehicles generates millions of jobs and remains critical to the overall health of the U.S. economy and the strength of the nation's industrial base.

Five things the Biden administration has attempted to restrict.  [#4] Gas-powered cars:  The Biden administration has been a strong advocate of electric cars and phasing out gas-powered vehicles, with the Department of Transportation's proposed fuel efficiency rules being a recent example of this push.  The proposed rule would raise standards for fuel efficiency to 66 miles per gallon for cars and 54 mpg for trucks by 2032, something National Highway Traffic Safety Administration acting Administrator Ann Carlson has said is "good news for everyone."  "The new standards we're proposing today would advance our energy security, reduce harmful emissions, and save families and business owners money at the pump," Carlson said.  "That's good news for everyone."

The Editor says...
A gas-engine car would almost have to have a styrofoam frame and aluminum-foil doors to get that kind of gas mileage.  Such a car would only be safe at school zone speeds or less.  Who gave the Department of Transportation the authority to issue such an edict?  Who among us believes that 54-mpg cracker-box cars will "save the earth?"

Time to Tell America's Climate Cult 'Stop!'  Unfortunately, the mismatch between means and aspirations, as well as the disregard for democratic principles, characterizes much of what passes for the national climate policies of both the UK and the United States.  In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency set the CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards for model year 2026 automobiles at 55 miles per gallon for sedans and 39 mpg for trucks and light-duty trucks/SUVs.  Those are enormous increases of 25 percent and 28 percent, respectively, just since 2020.  The clear intention in raising the CAFE standards so quickly is to force consumers into buying new cars that are either fully or partially electric, hybrids, or fully electric. [...] These new CAFE standards and other climate-related mandates weren't decisions arrived at by referendum or consensus; they were decreed by bureaucrats.  New York City Council, which is imposing mandate after mandate, is dominated overwhelmingly by Democrats, and most of those are "woke" progressives whose principal life experience is working in politics or at not-for-profits funded by the city.

The Disastrous Potential of The EPA's Proposed Rule for Model Year 2027.  The benefit/cost analysis published by the Environmental Protection Agency in its proposed rule "Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Year 2027 and Later Light-Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles" is fatally flawed; accordingly, the proposed rule should not be finalized.  EPA claims that the fuel savings attendant upon implementation of the proposed rule would yield benefits in present value terms of $380-$770 billion (net of EVSE port costs), depending on the choice of discount rate.  But fuel savings are an illegitimate dimension of any such benefit/cost analysis because the value of fuel savings measured as a function of market prices represents no divergence per se between market prices and true resource costs in standard externality analysis.  If "fuel savings" are to be considered relevant for purposes of benefit/cost analysis, then the adverse effects or costs of a (forced) reduction in fuel consumption in terms of the quality of transportation services must be included in the analysis also.

Biden Admin Fires Next Regulatory Salvo In Its Push For EVs.  The Biden administration proposed a new and ambitious set of fuel economy standards for cars and light-duty trucks Friday, its latest move to prod American consumers towards adopting electric vehicles (EVs).  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a subagency of the Department of Transportation (DOT), unveiled the updated Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which would require cars and lighter trucks to improve their respective fuel efficiencies by 2% and 4% starting in 2027, according to a DOT press release announcing the proposal.  The rule would also mandate work vans and pickup trucks to increase their fuel efficiencies by 10% each year, starting in 2030, according to the DOT press release.  If manufacturers fail to meet the stipulations of the proposed CAFE standards, they will have to pay punitive fines to the government, according to the rule's text.

Brandon's CAFE Standards To Drastically Increase.  This is going to make vehicles a great deal more expensive, making it harder for the working class and middle class afford vehicles, even used ones.  Of course this is being pushed by rich folks who do not have to worry about all this.  Oh, and many of them, like Joe Biden, are not even driving compliant vehicles[.] [...] Automakers know the customer base.  They know what people can afford, and have already been pushed too far since the start of COVID.  Will their own banks start doing 7 years plus loans as business as usual?  This will destroy leasing for the average American, and making financing costs too high for most to afford.  This couldn't possibly be the next step in forcing the peasants out of their privately owned vehicles and onto mass transit, could it?  Nah, that would be a crazy thought.  [Tweet]

Skipping over 30, 32 and 35 mpg:
New vehicles must average 40 mpg by 2026, up from 28 mpg.  New vehicles sold in the U.S. will have to average at least 40 miles per gallon of gasoline in 2026, up from about 28 mpg, under new federal rules unveiled Friday that undo a rollback of standards enacted under President Donald Trump.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said its new fuel economy requirements are the strongest to date and the maximum the industry can achieve over the time period.  They will reduce gasoline consumption by more than 220 billion gallons over the life of vehicles, compared with the Trump standards.  They're expected to decrease carbon dioxide emissions — but not as much as some environmentalists want — and raise new vehicle prices in an industry already pressed by inflation and supply chain issues.

The Editor says...
[#1] The far-left Socialist Democrats are making an error here, by departing from their usual method of slow, incremental changes that keep the public from noticing that they're being strangled.  This is a very big increase.  [#2] Will the roads be safer when everybody's driving street-legal go-karts in order to achieve 50 mpg?  Is this really going to "save the earth?"

How Leftist Global Warming Policy Will Wreck Your Truck.  [Scroll down]  The other relevant regulation comes out of the Department of Transportation, and it's a fuel economy regulation known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE).  Established in the mid-'70s, it requires that the average fuel economy of various segments of a manufacturer's cars and light trucks meet a particular number of miles per gallon (MPG).  Compared to EPA regulations, this is a walk in the park.  First, it's an average.  If you want to sell high-margin, powerful luxury cars, you just need to basically give away a bunch of cheap little econoboxes.  And then there's the problem of penalties.  They're really cheap — set in the original law passed by Congress when it was established in the mid-'70s and never updated for inflation.  Manufacturers can make the cost of the fines back up by charging customers an extra $10 or $20 on list prices of $40,000 or $50,000.  And finally, it requires a manufacturer to tell the agency what it's sold after model year and send a check in for its fines, if any.

The Hidden Agenda Behind Biden's Insane Gas Mileage Requirements.  The Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday that all new cars that aren't electric must average 55 miles per gallon by 2026.  This amounts to a Great Leap Forward of almost 20 miles per gallon from the currently ordered 36 miles per gallon that all new cars must achieve, else their manufacturers be punished for making them via "gas guzzler" fines applied to them.  Which are then passed on to the people who buy them.  Which makes it progressively more difficult to afford them.  That being the point of the fines, you understand.  The Biden administration considers it their right and duty to punish you for buying the car you want if it doesn't do what they like.  The free market being an intolerable affront to them.

New Mexico Governor's Car Gets 13 MPG As She Demands State Average Of 52 MPG.  New Mexico Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham wants state residents to drive cars with an average of 52 miles per gallon (mpg). Her own car, however, possesses an average fuel economy of less than 13 mpg.  According to gas logs released from an Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) between July 2020 and June 2021 filed by the energy non-profit Power the Future and shared with The Federalist, the average fuel economy for the governor's car was 12.65 mpg.  That fuel mileage is far short of the 52 mpg goal set in 2019 when Grisham committed New Mexico to energy-restrictive car regulations adopted by 14 other states.  "To combat climate change, to keep New Mexico's citizens safe, to protect the air we all breathe, it's essential we adopt more stringent clean car standards that increase fuel economy and reduce emissions," Grisham said in a September 2019 statement as the Trump administration removed burdensome regulation to drive innovation.  "New Mexico will stand up and deliver on our commitment to environmental leadership."  But the New Mexico governor's office hasn't.

Biden to unveil stricter emissions standards for vehicles, exceeding Obama-era regulations.  President Biden will unveil sweeping new regulations on cars and trucks on Thursday, returning America over the next five years to the strict standards that the Obama administration had imposed but former President Trump walked back.  The proposed rules drafted by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation would tighten emissions standards to be more in line with aggressive measures established by California in 2019, but which Mr. Trump had blocked.  On mileage rules, automakers also will be required to raise their average miles-per-gallon score of their fleets by 3.7% starting with the model year 2023, which would include cars sold next year.  That standard also had been proposed by California.

Post-coronavirus, easing up on CAFE rules makes more sense than ever.  The Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Rule rolls back an Obama-era regulation that made US Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards some of the strictest in the world, beating even carbon-obsessed Europe.  The change means that automakers' fleets will have to average around 40 miles per gallon by 2025, not the 54 mpg set by the last administration in 2012. [...] Most Americans simply aren't interested in tiny, difficult-to-maintain electric vehicles.  (In much of the country, they simply don't make sense since there's nowhere to charge them.)  The CAFE standards in place now raise the price of a car by an average of $3,800 — pricing some people out of the new-car market, so they keep on driving older, dirtier vehicles.  The administration estimates the new rule will lower the price of a new vehicle by about $1,000 — and cut costs for struggling American automakers by as much as $100 billion by the time 2030 models are rolled out.

Trump's Move To Ease Fuel Efficiency Rules Will Save Money — And Lives.  With the economy in turmoil from the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns, automakers will not have the means to retool, research and revamp their car lines to obey President Barack Obama's absurdly stringent rules.  Auto sales are now plunging.  Obama's rules would have required automakers to push the Corporate Average Fuel Economy from 25.3 miles per gallon per vehicle in 2012 to 54.5 mpg by 2025.  To do that, fuel efficiency had to increase about 5% a year.  Contrary to complaints in the media of Trump's "rollback" of standards, all the new rules do is reduce the fuel efficiency gains required to 1.5% a year, rather than the unreachable 5%.  So the U.S. fleet average will be 40 mpg, not 54.5, by 2025.  Even so, that will still be 28% higher than Obama's rules.  More importantly, automakers strained to meet the Obama requirements, forced to radically downsize cars and create a money-losing electric-car fleet that still requires subsidies even to exist.  Of course, everyone likes clean air.  But our fuel-efficiency standards didn't start out with that as their goal.

Trump blasts automakers wary of Obama fuel economy standards rollback.  President Trump said Tuesday [3/31/2020] his administration's weakening of Obama-era fuel efficiency standards would slash the cost of new vehicles and help auto industry workers, and he bashed industry officials skeptical of the move as "foolish executives."  "My Administration is helping U.S. auto workers by replacing the failed Obama Emissions Rule," Trump said in a series of tweets.  "Impossible to satisfy its Green New Deal Standard; Lots of unnecessary and expensive penalties to car buyers!"  Trump also boasted that his agencies' new rule would lower average car prices "by more than $3500, while at the same time making cars substantially safer," and he slammed auto companies, some of whom have sided with California in a feud with the federal government over the rules, as "politically correct."

Seven Silly Laws That Shred Our Personal Freedom.  [#3] In a small village within Westchester County, New York, you cannot idle your car longer than one minute, including on your own private property.  Otherwise you'll face a fine.  This is two minutes more restrictive — or more "progressive," as one community leader put it — than Westchester County itself, which has a three-minute anti-idling law.  "No person shall allow or permit the engine of a motor vehicle to idle for more than three consecutive minutes when the motor vehicle is not in motion," that law states.  There are some exemptions, including for first responder vehicles, for hybrid-electric vehicles that are recharging, and during freezing weather conditions.

The Editor says...
[#1] A car that is idling emits the same pollution as a car that is in motion; probably less.  [#2] I have owned more than one vehicle that was difficult to get started, and I'd be reluctant to shut down the engine just to keep from wrecking the earth.  [#3] Does every traffic signal have an extra feature now, to let you know you'll be stopped there for more than a minute?  Otherwise, how would you know?  [#4] All you have to do is drive forward an inch every 59 seconds to get around this law when you're out in public.  [#5] What about all the airplanes at the airport?  Many of those engines are idling, as the planes wait for takeoff or wait for a gate to open up.  And each of those engines burns a lot more gas than your car.

The Electric Car Fantasy.  SUVs and pickups now account for 70 percent of all vehicles purchased.  Most people, it seems, like big vehicles.  The minority who buy purely for economy choose small cars with gasoline engines.  This option, by the way, puts less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than a Tesla.  Consumers are price-sensitive in every category, a reality that politicians ignore at their peril.

California's Fuel Mileage Standards, Revoked.  President Donald Trump says his administration is revoking California's authority to set auto mileage standards stricter than those issued by federal regulators.  In a tweet, Trump said his move would result in less expensive and safer cars.  He insisted that new cars would be cleaner, even as they burn more gasoline than they would have under Obama-era fuel efficiency standards he wants to replace.  California's authority to set its own, tougher emissions standards goes back to a waiver issued by Congress during passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970.  Even before the announcement revoking that authority, California and environmental groups said they planned legal action.  California officials and environmental groups are criticizing the Trump administration's decision to revoke the state's authority to set auto mileage standards.

DOT, EPA announce 'one, and only one' national fuel standard.  The Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency Thursday announced that there will be "one, and only one" national fuel standard, a move made to cut the costs of vehicles and bar California from making stricter standards.  In a release and in a briefing today [9/19/2019], the department said, "This action will help ensure that there will be one, and only one, set of national fuel economy and greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicles."  The department, in the release shared in advance with [the Washington Examiner], also took a shot at California which will lose its waiver to require different fuel standards, a model followed by a dozen other states.

Trump Is Right to Ditch the California Auto Waiver.  The Trump administration is pushing ahead with a plan we endorsed previously.  It will revoke California's ability to set separate greenhouse-gas standards for cars — so that a single policy will apply to the entire country, and so that California can't use the threat of a bifurcated regulatory regime to influence that policy in a way other states cannot.  We are fans of federalism.  But Congress, understandably not wanting automakers to have to comply with 50 different sets of regulations, has generally preempted state regulation in this area — with the exception that California, and California alone, may apply for a waiver to create its own emission rules to address "compelling and extraordinary conditions." Other states may then adopt these rules if they choose.  "Compelling and extraordinary conditions" was intended as a reference to smog.  And in contrast to Californian smog, there is nothing compelling and extraordinary about Californian climate change.

Mark Levin:  CAFE Standards Are 'Mass Killers;' Yet Congress Is Focusing on Gun Control.  Nationally syndicated radio talk show host Mark Levin went after Congress on "The Mark Levin Show" Monday [9/9/2019] for focusing on gun control instead of focusing on CAFE standards, which Levin says are "mass killers."  "Has anybody heard this issue raised by anybody?" Mark Levin asked about CAFE standards and the reported deaths.  "Has anybody heard this issue raised on CNN, MSNBC, frankly, any cable show, network show, newspaper?  No, you haven't.  And yet, CAFE standards are killers by the thousands and thousands — mass killers."

Why Are Automakers Caving To California's Radical Greens?  Anyone who thinks that big business hates regulation should look at what's happening in the auto industry today.  While the Trump administration is pushing much-needed regulatory relief, four major carmakers are embracing California's plans to kill the internal combustion engine.  The issue involves federal fuel economy mandates, a vestige of the 1970s "energy crisis" that forced carmakers to meet increasingly strict fuel economy standards for their new cars.  These "corporate average fuel economy" standards resulted in a radical downsizing of the American car fleet back then, and were instrumental in destroying the U.S. auto industry's lead in the car business.

Spare Tires in New Cars.  Decades ago, nearly every car came with a full-size spare tire.  But fuel economy requirements, trunk space considerations and the dangers involved in setting up a jack on the side of a road prompted automakers to shift toward smaller, temporary spares.  Today, some vehicles have no spare at all.

Why Your New Car Doesn't Have a Spare Tire.  Fewer tires, higher taxes.  That may be what's in store for drivers under the federal government's spiraling fuel economy mandates (known as CAFE, for Corporate Average Fuel Economy).  The Department of Transportation is floating 62 mpg as a possible standard for 2025, more than double the current 27.5 mpg standard.  How the industry can meet that target, and at what cost, is anyone's guess.  A new study in mid-June by the nonprofit Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. put the tab at about $10,000 extra per new vehicle, while admitting that even this estimate might be far too low.  And that's not the only bad news; in the past few weeks there have been two other unwelcome developments.  First, GM announced that several versions of its compact Chevy Cruze would no longer have spare tires; instead, they'll have vehicle-powered sealant repair kits.  This is a major jump in the trend toward eliminating spare tires, a trend due largely to CAFE's drive to shed every possible ounce of car weight.

How Bureaucrats Ruin Everything From Dishwashers To Gas Cans To Cars.  Why is it that cars made 40 years ago or more are captivating, and varied, with real personalities, while new cars today are, for the most part, indistinguishable?  The reason is that there's basically only one way to design a car today that meets all the government-imposed safety and environmental regulations.  Jeffrey Tucker, writing for the American Institute for Economic Research, notes that "the designs of new cars are boring because regulations forced this result."  Today, the government dictates nearly every single aspect of a car's design.  Big fronts for safety, low tops for fuel economy, tiny windows, high belt lines, etc.  That's just the exterior.  Almost every feature of a car's interior is also regulated by government.

The "New Energy Economy": An Exercise in Magical Thinking.  Combustion engines have what's called a Carnot Efficiency Limit, which is anchored in the temperature of combustion and the energy available in the fuel.  The limits are long established and well understood.  In theory, at a high enough temperature, 80% of the chemical energy that exists in the fuel can be turned into power.  Using today's high-temperature materials, the best hydrocarbon engines convert about 50% [to] 60% to power.  There's still room to improve but nothing like the 10-fold to nearly hundred-fold revolutionary advances achieved in the first couple of decades after their invention.

Flaws with a "Green New Deal," Part 2 of 2.  [Scroll down]  Regarding fuel economy, the simple fact is that in order for vehicles to achieve more miles to the gallon, automakers must make them more expensive, but also lighter and smaller.  That means more Americans dying in car accidents than would otherwise be the case.  How big a deal is this?  Reputable studies have estimated that CAFE standards have caused anywhere from 40,000 [to] 125,000 excess vehicle fatalities.  Of course, proponents of stricter CAFE standards could quibble with these numbers, but the more significant point is that neither [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez nor [Paul] Krugman even admit that there is a tradeoff.  They speak of cranking up mileage standards as if it's a mere technical problem, without reckoning the tremendous human cost.

Obama's 'car of the future' goes kaput.  It came with a turbocharged four-cylinder engine, churned out about 140 horsepower, and made upwards 40 mpg highway.  What's more, the Chevy Cruze was the only compact sedan to come with a presidential seal of approval.  When a prototype of the 2011 model rolled off the assembly line, then President Barack Obama put his signature on the hood writing that the Cruze was "the car of the future."  But the future lasted only seven years.  Responding to slumping sales, General Motors announced plans to push the Cruze out of their showrooms and off of a cliff.

The Automotive Low Flush Toilet.  [Scroll down]  Now comes Auto-stop/start.  It's the same bad idea as the low-flow toilet, applied to cars.  Use less gas by using the engine less — by automatically shutting it off whenever the vehicle comes to a complete stop.  When the driver takes his foot off the brake — indicating his desire to get moving again — a high-torque starter motor is automatically engaged to re-start the engine and off you go — until the next stop, when the cycle repeats.  In theory — in government testing — it does save a little gas.  On the order of 1-2 miles-per-gallon vs. an otherwise identical vehicle without the system.  But it costs a lot more money.  The system requires the already mentioned high-torque starter motor (and solenoid), which must be made tougher and more durable than a regular starter motor which is only expected to start the vehicle once — prior to starting your trip — not numerous times (often, a dozen or more times) in the course of your trip.

Electric Cars:  The Real Killers.  There weren't any "zero emissions" mandates or carbon credits back in the mid-'90s and while CAFE — the government's fuel economy edicts — did exist, back then it was only 27-something miles-per-gallon and so it wasn't yet necessary to build EVs as compliance cars, just to even out the MPG math (as it is now; this is one of the non-market mechanisms being used to nudge EVs onto the market).  So the EV1 had to stand on its own two bowed and rickety legs — and of course, couldn't.  As today, it was much too expensive ($35,000 in mid-1990s dollars) to make any kind of economic sense and didn't go very far and took forever to recharge before you could go not-far again.  Which didn't make sense generally.  GM tried give-away leases but that was just the problem.  The only way to get people into an EV1 was to basically give it to them.

Obama's third term: 13 times courts said Trump must continue Obama's lawless policies.  [#10] Obama now sets regulations on cars ... forever?  In April, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction on the Department of Transportation's delay of penalties to auto makers that didn't comply with Obama's added Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.  Obama dramatically expanded the penalty, and his decisions are now final.

The Other Shoe Has Dropped in the VW Diesel Wars.  Germany's federal motor vehicle authority, the KBA, had already de-registered Audi and VW cars fitted with the "affected" Euro 5 diesel engines after owners ignored successive reminders to heed a voluntary recall.  Recalls, of course, usually pertain to cars that have something wrong with them which makes them unsafe to drive.  This is the first time a car that works perfectly has been subject to a recall — one which results in the "fixed" cars working less well.  The "fix" entails making various adjustments to the "affected" car's computer code — or the grafting on of a Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) injection system.  The end result is a mauled car that delivers lower mileage but is now compliant [...]

Trump kills Obama's unhelpful emissions regulation.  The Trump administration has finally come out with its proposal to reverse Obama-era regulations on vehicle emissions.  This is welcome, for current standards make cars unnecessarily expensive and limit choices while producing scant environmental benefit.  The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which jointly administer the CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) program, unveiled eight options for fuel-economy standards for vehicles made between 2021 and 2026.  Of those, the agencies recommend freezing standards at 2020 levels through 2026 as the best option.  If accepted, this would block mandatory yearly increases, which were ordered under Obama.  The practical outcome will be to save car buyers about $2,340 per new vehicle, according to the administration.

Trump unravels more of Obama's legacy, with proposed freeze on mileage rules.  The Trump administration on Thursday [8/2/2018] moved to freeze fuel economy standards in what officials described as an effort to give drivers access to "safer" and "more affordable" vehicles, in the latest swipe at former President Barack Obama's legacy.  The proposal comes just one day after the Trump administration announced major changes to health plans, providing consumers with more options to buy cheaper, short-term health insurance.

U.S. says no need for better gas mileage, heavy vehicles safer.  A draft of a regulation prepared this summer would freeze an Obama-era program that was intended to improve fuel efficiency and cut pollution.

Freeze, reduce or eliminate CAFE fuel standards.  A 2002 National Academy of Sciences study estimated that automotive mileage standards had helped cause as many as 2,600 extra fatalities in 1993 — at a relatively lenient standard of 27.5 miles per gallon.  Other studies reached similar conclusions.  And yet, in 2012, the Obama Administration began ratcheting the standards upward, with the goal of hitting 54.5 mpg by 2025.  Thankfully, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has proposed to re-examine the 54.5-mpg standard, possibly freeze it at the 2020 level of 39 mpg, and rein in other aspects of this harmful government program.  His proposal drew howls of outrage from predictable factions.

Chuck Schumer calls on EPA to lower gas prices.  Sen. Chuck Schumer called on the Environmental Protection Agency on Sunday not to follow through with plans to rollback mile-per-gallon standards to lessen the pain at the pump for motorists as gas prices hit their highest rates in four years.  "If prices stay as high as they are, this summer the average motorist will pay $200 to $300 more out of their pockets than they would have otherwise," the New York Democrat said during a news conference at a Mobil gas station in Manhattan where the price is $4.15 a gallon.  "Now with the price the way it is, the better mileage the motorist gets, the better everyone does."  The EPA announced last week that it has submitted plans to weaken an Obama administration rule for automakers to increase their cars' fuel economy by 50 mpg by 2025.

Why the aluminum lobby, carmakers, and the power companies favor fuel-efficiency regulations.  If you believed the press and the Democrats, the White House was handing the keys over to the automaker lobby and other big business "polluters" with its plan to dial back efficiency standards for cars. [...] The truth is far more complicated.  There have been corporate lobbyists on all sides of the fuel-efficiency debate.  And the most laissez-faire position — the one staked out by the administration — has almost no corporate lobbyists supporting it at all.  In short, some businesses want a ton of regulation, some want moderate regulation, and almost nobody is lobbying for low or no regulation.

EPA Head Says Vehicle Emissions Standards Set by Obama Should Be Revised Downward.  A news release posted on the EPA website on April 2 said that the agency's administrator, Scott Pruitt, announced the completion of the Midterm Evaluation (MTE) process for the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for cars and light trucks for model years 2022-2025.  Pruitt's final determination is that, in light of recent data, the current standards are not appropriate and should be revised.  The current standards were set by the Obama administration.  "The Obama Administration's determination was wrong," said Pruitt.  "Obama's EPA cut the Midterm Evaluation process short with politically charged expediency, made assumptions about the standards that didn't comport with reality, and set the standards too high."

Ford And The Folly Of Federal Fuel Economy Mandates.  It's been a bad couple of weeks for environmentalists who want to force Americans into battery-powered econoboxes.  First, the Trump administration said it will likely freeze fuel economy standards.  Then Ford announced plans to drop most of its passenger cars in favor of trucks and SUVs.  Both are good news for consumers.

Obama fuel standards so bad even Axios thinks they should be dumped.  President Obama was always big on forcing bad things down the throat of the American voter and consumer. [...] One of the worst things Obama tried to foist on us was in his executive orders to raise fuel standards on automakers in the name of going green, as if such technology could be commanded into existence, and more importantly, as if consumers would be happy buying ugly, European-style blatt-blatt cars they didn't like.  Even Axios, a left-leaning news site, finds that one a no-go, arguing that such standards should be at least reformed, even as the rest of us think they should be scrapped.

The Fuel Economy Fraud.  The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday took the Obama fuel economy rules off autopilot.  This is good news for consumers, automakers and the U.S. economy, but the Trump Administration's big test will be negotiating around the political potholes.

Corporate average fuel economy (Cafe) standards are a vestige of the 1970s gas shortages.  Like the Nixon-era price controls, the fuel standards were intended to reduce gas consumption.  But the environmental left long ago hijacked the rules [...]

Coffee Won't Kill You, But CAFE Might.  The federal government's auto fuel economy standards have for decades posed a simple problem:  They kill people.  Worse, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has covered this up.  The Environmental Protection Agency, which since 2009 has helped manage the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, known as CAFE, also played a role in burying their deleterious effects.  But change finally is coming.

American Journalists Are Hysterical Knuckleheads.  [Scroll down]  Or take the reporting on the EPA's expected rollback of Obama's fuel-economy mandate.  The mandate required automakers to hit targets of 54.5 miles per gallon — an absurd number based on zero science (the decimal point was a snarky joke) which automakers could duck by jumping through a bunch of largely cosmetic "green" hoops that cost them money but made the administration look good.  It was scientific, political and environmental hogwash that hurt American business.  Here's how CBS reported it.  "The Trump administration is set to roll back one of President Barack Obama's signature policies on the environment."  "It's expected to ignite a firestorm of criticism."  And then, despicably, they picked up a series of likely coordinated and unfounded attacks on EPA Chief Scott Pruitt's ethics — travel expenses that are in keeping with those of previous directors, an apartment he rented from an energy guy who had no business in front of the EPA, and so on — clearly designed to take the man down.

Make them build cars nobody wants.  Apparently [Scott Pruitt] is the first EPA director to get death threats.  That does not stop him from doing his job — or speaking out.  "I think the focus in the past has been on making manufacturers in Detroit, making manufacturers in various parts of the country make cars that people aren't going to buy, and our focus should be on making cars that people actually purchase more efficient," Pruitt told CNS News and other news outlets.  "To have arbitrary percentages of our fleet made up of vehicles that aren't going to be purchase, that defeats the very purpose of what the CAFE standards are supposed to address."  And arbitrary the numbers are.  Marxists pluck some number out of the air for fuel mileage requirements for no reason at all.  To save oil?  We're almost swimming in domestic oil — without touching offshore oil outside the Gulf of Mexico.

Trump Dismantles Another Obama 'Achievement' — Just One More To Go.  EPA head Scott Pruitt said Tuesday that the administration would rewrite Obama's fuel economy standards starting with model year 2022.  Obama's plan was to mandate that all cars sold average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, up from 38.3 mpg this year.  As we have repeatedly explained in this space, Obama's fuel economy mandate was little more than a thinly disguised electric car mandate, since hitting that level would have required a substantial increase in plug-in sales.  As it stands, there are only a handful of powered cars that can go more than 54 miles on a gallon of gas.  Pruitt said that, instead of trying to force consumers into more expensive cars that environmentalists like, the focus at the EPA will be "on making cars that people actually buy and that are efficient."

EPA Administrator:  Obama's Emissions Standards Forced Automakers to Make Cars People Won't Buy.  Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said the Obama administration's focus was on forcing car manufacturers to make cars that people won't buy when the focus should have been on making cars that people actually buy more efficient.  Pruitt said the emissions standards for cars and light trucks set by the previous administration were "inappropriate and should be revised."  His agency announced Monday [4/2/2018] that it planned to revise the standards, but did not specify what specific standards would be set going forward.

EPA poised to scrap fuel economy targets that are key to curbing global warming.  The Trump administration is poised to abandon America's pioneering fuel economy targets for cars and SUVs, a move that would undermine one of the world's most aggressive programs to confront climate change and invite another major confrontation with California.  The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce in the coming days that it will scrap mileage targets the Obama administration drafted in tandem with California that aim to boost average fuel economy for passenger cars and SUVs to 55 miles per gallon by 2025, according to people familiar with the plans.  The agency plans to replace those targets with a weaker standard that will be unveiled soon, according to the people, who did not want to be identified discussing the plan before it was announced.

Bias alert!
If all the internal combustion engines in the world stopped tomorrow, global warming or cooling would continue uninterrupted, except by each other(!), because warming and cooling result from the variable output power of the sun, and the effects of naturally-occurring greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.  Fuel economy is not the key to "curbing global warming," as falsely stated in the headline above.

EPA to hold hearing on Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards.  The Trump administration this week may move closer to undoing yet another of President Obama's signature environmental achievements as it weighs whether to weaken vehicle fuel economy standards.  The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday [9/6/2017] will hold a public hearing as part of its ongoing review process, which was announced earlier this year at the direction of the president.  The agency is considering watering down the Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE standards, for model years 2022 through 2025.  Such action would derail a deal the Obama administration made with automakers that requires the nation's cars and light trucks get nearly 50 miles per gallon on average by 2025.

Reeling in the power of the EPA.  Since the oil shortages of the 1970s, fuel regulations have been imposed on the automobile industry, but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has used CAFE standards to combat climate change and lower greenhouse gas emissions.  In 2011, the Obama EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) came together to force automakers to improve fuel efficiency standards by 2025, with a midterm review occurring in 2016.  Theoretically, in 2016 the EPA and the NHTSA would communicate with automakers to create standards that are feasible for compliance before they issued their Final Determination for CAFE standards; but instead, the unrestrained power Obama gave the EPA allowed them to usurp the automakers most affected by this policy and even the NHTSA, who the EPA is supposed to be working with.

Federal Fuel Economy Mandates Are Deadly.  The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports that of the 10 cars with the highest death rates over model years 2012-2015, eight are either small or minicars.  On the other hand, of the 10 cars with the lowest death rates, four were large and five were midsize.  The other was a Toyota pickup.  Looked at another way, small 4-door cars had death rates more than twice those of large 4-doors.  The death rate for mini station wagons was three times that of midsize wagons.

Giddy Up!  Automakers raise horsepower, speed to new heights.  Horsepower has risen so high that some experts are proclaiming a new "golden age of muscle cars" that far outpace the first generation from the 1960s.

Somewhat relevant:
From killer diesel fumes to ruinous floods, every green initiative imposed on us by politicians has ended in disaster.  What a parable for our times the great diesel scandal has been, as councils vie to see which can devise the heaviest taxes on nearly half the cars in Britain because they are powered by nasty, polluting diesel.  This week, it was announced many diesel drivers will soon have to pay fully £24 a day to drive into Central London, while 35 towns across the country are thinking of following suit.  Already some councils charge up to £90 more for a permit to park a diesel car.  The roots of this debacle go back to the heyday of Tony Blair's government, when his chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, became obsessed with the need to fight global warming.  Although he was an expert in 'surface chemistry' — roughly speaking, the study of what happens when, for example, a liquid meets a gas — King had no qualifications in climate science.

Trump to visit Detroit to stop EPA's rushed auto rules.  President Trump will visit Detroit Wednesday [3/15/2017] to halt Environmental Protection Agency regulations that would force manufacturers to make cars that average more than 50 miles a gallon.  An industry executive privy to the White House plan told the Washington Examiner to expect Trump to roll back a final decision that the EPA rushed out late last year, when President Obama was heading for the exit, imposing stricter fuel economy and emissions standards for vehicles beginning this year.

EPA to announce reversal on fuel economy standards next week.  The Environmental Protection Agency will announce a change in automobile emissions standards next week, undoing a last minute effort by the Obama administration to lock in the rules through 2025. [...] As I noted last month, a group of 18 automakers sent the Trump administration a letter asking for a reconsideration of fuel standards.  The Obama administration had until 2018 to complete a midterm review of the progress made by automakers.  They had hoped for some relief from the standards during that review.  Instead, the administration rushed through the process and announced a final decision one week before Trump took office.

Obama focusing on regulatory footprint before end of term.  The Obama administration is introducing a last-minute barrage of costly environmental regulation pronouncements that Republicans have vowed to repeal as soon as possible after Donald Trump's January 20 presidential inauguration. [...] Case in point:  an announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency, one of the administration's most energetic rule-makers, on Wednesday [11/30/2016] that after lengthy study, it would push ahead with tougher greenhouse gas emission standards, equivalent to 54.1 miles per gallon fuel efficiency, for passenger cars and light trucks for the years 2022-2025.

Obama Administration Imposes New Efficiency Regulations on Heavy Duty Trucks.  On August 16, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finalized new fuel efficiency standards for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles as called for by President Obama's Climate Action Plan.  The standards are expected to lower carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 1.1 billion metric tons over the lifetime of the vehicles sold under the program, an amount the Obama administration has admitted is amount too small to have a measurable effect on temperature or climate change.  The new standards will affect engine performance standards for truck model years 2018-2027, including for semi-trucks, large pickup trucks, vans, and all types and sizes of buses and work trucks.  The costs will vary based on the size of the vehicle but it could add as much as $15,100 to the price of a large truck within the next decade.

EPA's Absurd New Fuel Standards for Trucks Will Raise Upfront Costs.  In a continued effort to address alleged man-made global warming, the Obama administration has finalized energy efficiency standards for medium and heavy-duty trucks.  While the administration is pledging to reduce fuel use and cut greenhouse gas emissions, its stringent energy mandate will do nothing to affect climate change.  What it will do, however, is take decisions away from the American individuals and businesses and consolidate more power in Washington.  The regulation requires a wide variety of vehicles — from school buses and passenger vans, to garbage and delivery trucks and long-haul tractor-trailers — to improve fuel efficiency.

1,690-Page 'Climate Change' Reg Increases Cost of Tractor-Trailer Up to $15,119.  The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration jointly issued a new regulation last week that is meant to help protect the world from "climate change" by limiting "greenhouse gas emissions" and improving fuel efficiency in medium- and heavy-duty vehicles operated in the United States.  The 1,690-page regulation is approximately 700,000 words long.  A "regulatory impact analysis" published by EPA and NHTSA estimates the regulation will add an average of as much as $13,749 to the cost of a tractor truck and $1,370 to a trailer, making some tractor-trailer combinations $15,119 more expensive in 2027 than they would be under current regulations.

The EPA's gas mileage testing standards don't work.  For one example which came out on Monday, the EPA said they were on track to meet the goals announced by the Obama administration in 2012.  These CAFE standards call for auto manufacturers to produce fleets of vehicles which average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.  Of course, that's an average.  If you produce some gas guzzling trucks, you'll also need to sell hybrids to make up the difference.  But inside the same report, the EPA hedged their bets, saying that cheap gas will likely prompt more consumers to purchase bigger, less fuel efficient cars.  And on top of that, the mileage standard really isn't 54.5 miles per gallon anyway.

US says fuel economy likely won't meet 2025 targets.  The U.S. government says the nation's cars and trucks are well on their way to meeting fuel economy and emissions standards set for 2025, but cheaper gas prices could ultimately lower those targets by encouraging consumers to buy less-efficient vehicles.

The EPA's Fuel Efficiency Testing May Not Work.  Like, at All.  In 2012 President Obama instituted new, aggressive fuel economy standards for automakers selling cars in the United States.  The executive branch — represented here by the Environmental Protection Agency, basically — mandated that every car manufacturer would have to have a fleetwide average gas mileage of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.  The Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards (CAFE to transit nerds) take the gas mileage of every car a company sells — from Yaris to Tundra, Verano to Enclave, Golf to whatever — and average it out.  You want to build a gas-guzzling, smoke-pumping, V-18 for hauling a camper dragging a boat?  You're gonna need to sell a hybrid, too.

Low Energy.  [Scroll down]  Fuel economy has steadily improved since the mass marketing of cars back in the stone age.  That's due to better engineering.  The cars not only get better fuel economy today, they ride better, they are of better quality, they use better components.  A new car off the lot in the 1950's suffered from rattles, wind noise, poor fitting components and it needed constant maintenance.  In other words, fuel efficiency is mostly just a byproduct of better engineering of cars in general.

Study: Electric Vehicles Pollute More Than Gas-powered Cars.  [Scroll down]  That conventional vehicles pollute less isn't quite as shocking when you consider, as American Thinker's Thomas Lifson points out, "that internal combustion engine performance has improved so radically over the past several decades that they actually emit very few pollutants compared to engines of the past.  The internal combustion engine is the most highly engineered product on the planet, having been worked on for well over a century by hundreds of thousands of engineers all over the planet."  The proof is in the pudding.  Consider the evolution of popular sports car the Chevrolet Camaro:  While the 2017 version is actually about 300 pounds heavier and has horsepower approximately equal to or greater than the 1970 version, it also goes fairly close to twice as many miles on a gallon of gas.  But electric vehicles have gone 10 times as far on a gallon of hype.

GM Stops Sale of SUVS; Mileage on Window Stickers Was Wrong.  General Motors Co. is telling dealers not to sell about 60,000 SUVs in the U.S. because the gas mileage listed on the window stickers was inadvertently overstated.  The company told dealers that the Environmental Protection Agency-estimated mileage on the stickers is one-to-two miles per gallon too high.  GM says it reported the mistake to the EPA as soon as it was discovered.

Shell unveils 89 mpg car.  Built on a tubular steel frame with carbon fiber and composite structural elements and bodywork, the car weighs just 1,212 pounds and needs just a 43 hp 660cc three-cylinder engine mounted in the rear to hit 98 mph.  Shell formulated an experimental oil to maximize the motor's efficiency.  Like the F1, the driver sits in the middle with two passengers to the sides and behind, giving all three a reasonable amount of space, even though the car is so narrow that five of them could fit side by side in a soccer goal. [...] Shell isn't planning on building the car itself, it's just a concept.

The Editor says...
Of course, if they ever crash-test this thing, it will probably explode like a well-struck piñata.  89 mpg is only attainable by sacrificing mass (i.e., safety), power (i.e., air conditioning), and passenger space.  Engines and aerodynamic design have improved since the late 1950's, because this little  death trap  car gets better mileage than the old Isetta.

Fuel Economy Standards Are a Costly Mistake.  The Obama Administration's regulations intended to force very rapid increases in vehicle fuel economy are adding thousands of dollars to the prices of new cars.  Vehicle prices are rising in ways that are consistent with the predictions of studies undertaken several years ago.  It is likely that the regulations are adding at least $3,800 (perhaps much more) to the average price of new vehicles, thus pricing many Americans out of the new car market altogether.  The Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards were originally put in place in order to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.  Economists have roundly rejected the wisdom of that goal.  Under the Obama Administration, CAFE standards have become a tool for combatting global warming, at which they are utterly ineffective.  Americans are paying excessively for regulations that fail any reasonable cost-benefit test.  The CAFE standards should be scrapped.

A New Car Will Cost You at Least $3,800 Extra Because of Government Regulation.  In a recently released Heritage Foundation research paper, we've compared the recent price trends to the scholarly predictions, and found that if U.S. vehicle prices had followed one of the comparable trends, cars would be between $3,975 and $7,140 cheaper today than they are.  This massive expense buys very little change in global warming:  less than two hundredths of a degree according to the Obama administration's own estimate.  Congress should scrap Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards entirely — they cost consumers dearly while having a negligible impact on carbon emissions.  Failing that, a new administration can freeze the standards at 2016 levels to prevent the Corporate Average Fuel Economy tax from doubling by 2025, as the Obama administration has planned.

The Left's Fuel Economy Regulations Could Cost You $3,800.  Federal regulations that force ever-increasing automobile fuel economy standards cost consumers thousands of dollars more than what they save on using less gas.  These burdensome regulations also reduce new-car purchases and, therefore, autoworker employment.  How much more expensive are the gas mileage gains?  Scholars estimated that the new standards would add at least $3,800 to the cost of a car in 2016 and at least $7,200 in 2025.  This cost includes the gasoline savings.  Empirical Heritage Foundation research supports those estimates.

Dems Are At War With Americans On Cars, Guns And Refugees.  Democrats like to portray themselves as champions of the good ol' middle-class.  Yet on key issues, they've staked out positions diametrically opposed to the desires of those same Americans.  Item 1:  Democrats have been trying to force American consumers to buy cars they clearly don't want.  One of the first things President Obama did in office was push through a 35% increase in the federal fuel-economy mandate for cars and trucks.  Next year, the average mileage per gallon for all cars sold is supposed to be 34.1.  Ten years from now, it's supposed to hit 54.5.  Obama constantly sells this as a big win for consumers, who are supposedly being denied the gas-sipping cars they want by Big Auto.  But actual car buyers are voting with their wallets against what the president wants.

Are Stringent Vehicle Emissions Standards Driving a Surge in Coal?  While the rise in coal generated electricity to smelt Aluminium is dramatic, Aluminium smelting is only one of a range of factors driving the rise in global coal usage.  The 400 TwH used in Aluminium production is only a portion of the rapidly growing multi-terawatt hours of electricity produced every year (40% of which is generated from coal, according to World Coal).  But the rise in Aluminium car components, largely driven by stringent emission regulations, and pressure to improve fuel efficiency, is making a significant and increasing impact on global CO2 emissions.

Spare us: Automakers removing trunk tires in more new car models.  Nearly four in 10 new cars are sold without a most basic feature — the spare tire.  A study by the American Automobile Association, or AAA, found that 36 percent of 2015 models come with run-flat tires or tire inflation kits instead of a spare tire.  That's up from just 5 percent in 2006. [...] The Auto Club wants car companies to equip all their new vehicles with spare tires.  Automakers are removing the spares to save money and trim weight to improve efficiency as they face increasingly stringent fuel economy standards.  Trading a spare tire for an inflation kit removes about 25 pounds from the car.

Buick only U.S. brand in top 15 of reliability survey.  Only one American car brand — Buick — cracked the top 15 list in Consumer Reports' latest Auto Reliability Survey.  Cadillac struggled the most in the annual ratings because of problems with its infotainment system.  And fuel-saving transmissions emerged as trouble spots for some makes.  Dual-clutch transmissions and those with as many as nine speeds were developed as part of the race to build more fuel-efficient vehicles.  But they have led to cars breaking down, according to Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports' director of automotive testing.

Ford F-150 gets mixed crash test results.  Ford's new aluminum-sided F-150 pickup saw mixed results in new crash tests by the insurance industry, and the damaged trucks cost more to repair than steel-bodied ones.

EPA's New Fuel Regulations Will Avert 0.0026 Degrees Of Warming.  The EPA's new carbon dioxide regulations for heavy trucks is meant to help the U.S. meet its goal of reducing emissions to fight global warming.  There's just one problem:  CO2 regulations on heavy trucks will have little to no impact on global warming over the next 85 years, according to the EPA's own analysis.  The EPA says limiting carbon dioxide from heavy trucks will reduce emissions by more than 1 billion metric tons by 2050.  Cutting CO2, the agency says, will create up to $34 billion in "climate benefits" along with up to $40 billion from reducing traditional pollutants.

EPA proposes tougher mileage standards for trucks.  The Environmental Protection Agency issued new rules that would lower carbon dioxide emissions from trucks and vans by 24 percent by 2027.

The Editor says...
Lower CO2 emissions and better fuel economy are two separate issues.  The two goals can be met simultaneously by reducing the horsepower of truck engines.  So the EPA will soon be causing massive traffic jams on the freeways as the rest of us get stuck behind big trucks with tiny Obama-compliant engines.

Trucking industry braces for new EPA rules for big rigs.  President Obama is expected to soon add emission rules for big-rig trucks to a growing list of regulations to combat the threat of climate change.  The president directed the Environmental Protection Agency to develop new rules for heavy-duty trucks to make them more fuel efficient, while lowering their carbon dioxide emissions to lessen the effects of global warming.  Trucking manufacturers will be looking to see if they are able to meet the standards without driving smaller trucking fleets out of business, according to industry representatives.

EPA is putting heavy-duty trucks on a new diesel diet.  This week, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to propose regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions from heavy-duty trucks, a major new environmental mandate by the Obama administration that could dramatically transform America's trucking industry.  A tractor-trailer now averages 5 and 6 miles to a gallon of diesel.  The new regulations would seek to raise that average to as much as 9 mpg, requiring that fuel economy increase up to 40 percent by 2027 compared with 2010 levels, according to people briefed on the proposal.

Energy Department Gives $259 Million 'Green' Conditional Loan to Politically Connected Corporation.  The Department of Energy's disastrous loan program lost taxpayers at least $780 million as companies like Solyndra, Fisker Automotive, and Abound Solar crashed and burned.  But as I write today, after a four-year hiatus, the Energy Department has announced a new fuel-efficient-vehicle loan — a $259 million conditional award to Alcoa.  It's a pretty sweet deal:  The Energy Department touts on its website how this loan program "offers attractive financing for U.S. auto industry," including no application fees, a closing fee of just 0.1 percent, and interest rates estimated at no more than 4 percent.  Of course, one might wonder why a company like Alcoa, which brought in $23.9 billion in revenue last year, needs government (read: taxpayer) help.  But it turns out Alcoa has major Obama administration ties.

Successful companies don't kill their customers.  Selling a three-wheeled car to the American public skeptical of change might be a tough sell.  If this company wants to last for more than a few years, it has to, you know, keeps its customers alive.

Ford Starts Production of New Aluminum F-150.  Aluminum — which is lighter than steel but just as strong — isn't new to the auto industry, but this is the first time it will cover the entire body of such a high-volume vehicle.

The Editor says...
Lighter than steel but just as strong?  Really?  Aluminum is more malleable and elastic than steel.*  It is also less rigid.*  It is also more expensive.

Maker of 3-wheeled car thinks big.  Your next commuter car could have two seats, three wheels and get 84 miles to the gallon.

Federal Regulators Could Be Empowered To Enter Your Property To Inspect Your Cars.  President Barack Obama's $302 billion transportation bill gives federal regulators the power to enter the premises of car dealerships to determine if their vehicles are in compliance with federal fuel-economy mandates.  The Department of Transportation (DOT) could see its vehicle inspection authority expanded if Congress passes Obama's Grow America Act.  Currently, DOT officials are only allowed to inspect records and information from companies that must comply with federal fuel economy standards.  But Obama's bill would allow federal bureaucrats to enter the premises of car dealerships to physically inspect to see if vehicles are in compliance with federal fuel economy standards.

Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Smart Cars.  A needless tragedy in North Carolina as a woman involved in a single-car crash perished when her "Smart" Car repeatedly rolled over. [...] These tiny demi-cars are dangerous simply because they do not possess the size or weight to survive serious impacts with conventional vehicles.  They are the product of government intervention, beginning in 1975, when Congress first authorized CAFE standards ostensibly to "save fuel."  As Deroy Murdock observes, "In a crash, most drivers would trade lower MPG for protective layers of thick steel."

Car-tipping? Vandals upend ultra-compact Smart cars in San Francisco.  Urbanites have apparently found an answer to rural California's long nefarious history of cow-tipping.  A group of men in San Francisco have allegedly taken to car-tipping.  Three Smart cars were "tipped over" late Sunday [4/6/2014] or early Monday, local media reported.  The pint-sized, two-door coupes were either set on their hind quarters or tipped completely over.  The feat of upending a car listed at roughly 1,800 pounds may take more muscle than merely pushing over a snoozing cow, but the vandals also appeared to know what they were doing, according to one witness.

The Editor says...
Usually the mocking derision of little clown cars isn't demonstrated in physical violence.

Big Trucks, Obama, and the Rule of Law.  Along with other new regulations that are being promulgated without benefit of the approval of Congress, the big truck rule is part of the president's effort to show the world that he is working to save the planet from climate change.  But while energy efficiency and a potential reduction in the amount of oil consumption sound like ideas that everyone can get behind, the problem here is twofold.  On the one hand, the imposition of the new regulations will almost certainly raise the costs of these vehicles as well as make them less safe.

Heavy-duty vehicles in Obama crosshairs.  President Obama will unveil the next phase of fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty vehicles on Tuesday [2/18/2014].  During his visit to a Safeway distribution center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, Obama will announce the new standards, which build upon the first standards the administration finalized for big rigs, semi trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles in 2011.  The new standards continue Obama's promised "year of action," a White House official said on Monday.  In the last five days, including the new fuel economy standards, the administration has set a stricter tone on the president's climate policies.

Obama orders new green rules.  President Obama on Tuesday [2/18/2014] announced he was ordering his administration to develop a set of new fuel efficiency standards for trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles.  Obama did not detail specific targets for heavy-duty vehicles, but said he expected a draft proposal by March of next year and for the rule to be implemented by 2016.  The proposal will be an extension of standards first launched in 2011, and apply to future model years.  While heavy-duty trucks and buses represent just 4 percent of the vehicles on the road, they generate 20 percent of the nation's vehicular carbon pollution.

The Editor says...
Here's a handy code-cracker for the benefit of those of you who attended public schools: If "4 percent of the vehicles on the road... generate 20 percent" of the CO2, that's probably because their engines are five times as powerful.  Therefore, it is a meaningless statistic.  And notice once again, "they generate 20 percent of the nation's vehicular carbon pollution."  That's a double-sided canard:  Carbon dioxide is not carbon, nor is it a pollutant.  Carbon dioxide obviously does not cause global warming, because carbon dioxide is steadily increasing in the atmosphere, and global warming stopped in the late 1990's.  Any battle against the production of carbon dioxide is futile, wasteful and unnecessary.  Why then are leftist politicians like Obama promoting such a battle (at taxpayers' expense)?  Leftists hate capitalism, and big trucks (and cars) are essential to capitalism.

Obama to issue executive order on truck fuel standards.  The preisdent just "can't wait" for Congress to develop new fuel efficiency standards for trucks, so he will do it for them using his power of executive authority. [...] It isn't so much that Congress won't develop new fuel standards.  It's that they won't do it the way he wants it done.  Like any good king, the president knows what's best and things like, "compromise," and "consensus" shouldn't stand in the way of his royal pronouncements.

Greenies and their twisted sense of risk.  One of the latest badges of greenie virtue is the mini-car.  Supposedly, if you drive one of these contraptions, you demonstrate your concern for Mother Gaia and help diminish the risk that catastrophic global warming will engulf low lying coastal areas and fry the rest of us in temperatures that will be a couple of degrees higher in the next hundred years.  In this worldview, people who drive around in SUVs are carelessly risking the very future of humanity. [...] But is that perceived risk worth cramming yourself into one of these contraptions?  And what about the risk of serious injury when one of these tiny vehicles encounters an obstacle?

Somewhat related:
Is There An ObamaCar In Your Future?  Every time federal regulators force some new bit of tech into cars, they proclaim it to be the biggest advance in safety since the brake pedal, only to find real-world results disappointing.  They claimed, for example, that "electronic stability control" — required in all new cars since 2011 — would be like "a guardian angel" that would save 10,000 lives a year.  Fatalities climbed in 2012.  The government promised that air bags would cut the risk of dying by 40%, saving 12,000 lives a year.  The actual benefit turned out to be about one-fourth that.

How many miles per gallon does your Prius really get?  At issue are recent auto tests conducted by the venerable watchdog Consumer Reports.  The organization found, for instance, that the EPA rates the Ford C-Max hybrid as getting 47 mpg overall.  But the Consumer Reports tests mimicking real-world conditions showed it got only 37 mph.  Why the discrepancy?  Consumer Reports says the EPA is using outdated testing methods that favor hybrid vehicles.

Inaccurate EPA Mileage Tests Mislead Consumers.  Are automakers designing cars for drivers — or federal bureaucrats?  It's worth asking.  Tests found that some top-rated cars performed far worse in the real world than they did in official EPA mileage tests.

The Regulatory Landscape in America — A Morass Of Red Tape.  In August, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in tandem with the Environmental Protection Agency, finalized fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks for model years 2017|2025.  The rules require a whopping average fuel economy of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.  Sticker prices will jump by hundreds of dollars.

Having killed the coal industry, Obama's next target is steel.
Carmakers Steering Away From Steel in Order to Meet Fuel Economy Standards.  Faced with increasingly stringent benchmarks — the government's new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards require a passenger vehicle fleet that averages 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 — carmakers are taking another approach to achieving better fuel mileage: shaving weight off vehicles by experimenting with lighter materials.  Automobiles have long been made from steel — a very strong, but heavy material.  Now manufacturers are experimenting with new materials — ranging from aluminum to carbon fiber composites to metal alloys — to help companies reach the ambitious fuel efficiency standards.

The 10 Worst Regulations of 2012.  [#3]  Fuel Economy Standards:  In August, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in tandem with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), finalized new fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks for model years 2017-2025.  The rules require a whopping average fuel economy of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.  Sticker prices will jump by hundreds of dollars.  Regulators argue that the fuel savings will make up these costs.  Whether consumers want to make such a trade-off does not matter.  The government has decided for them.

Mandating cars people don't want.  On Tuesday [12/4/2012], just before jetting off to yet another pointless climate conference, in Doha, [Canadian Environment Minister Peter] Kent announced what he called "good news."  The government would be forcing the auto industry to make cars consumers might not want, but this could save motorists $900 in gasoline a year.  He quoted a marvellously precise and yet random-seeming average fuel consumption of "54.5 miles per U.S. gallon" by 2025.  The units make it clear that the figure was dictated by Washington, not Ottawa.

Obama finalizes auto mileage mandate.  The Transportation Department and Environmental Protection Agency announced joint mileage and carbon emissions rules for model years 2017 through 2025 that will eventually force automakers to meet a standard equivalent to 54.5 miles per gallon.

Interior of the Fiat Qubo,
not the roomiest car on the road.

This is an original compilation, Copyright © 2013 by Andrew K. Dart

"As to the "WWJD?" clerics' question, Jesus reportedly arrived in Jerusalem on a fuel-guzzling and high-pollution conveyance, a donkey.  For millennia, before automobiles arrived to offend liberals, quadrupeds ruled the streets.  A century ago in fragrant New York City, the healthiest of the 150,000 horses each put up to 25 pounds of manure each day onto the streets, to the delight of swarms of flies, or in stables — most blocks had one — filled with urine-soaked hay.  In dry weather, traffic pounded manure to dust that penetrated noses and houses.  Then automobiles, and especially SUVs, spoiled paradise."

-- George F. Will