U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced in a conference call today that CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards for 2025 have been finalized, and will gradually increase to the Obama Administration’s proposed 54.5 mpg requirement.

The new rules, combined with the previous rules to increase CAFE to 35.5 mpg between 2011 and 2016, will nearly double the old standards that hadn’t been changed since the 1980s, LaHood said during the conference call. While the Obama Administration called the new standards “groundbreaking,” in a press release, LaHood said during the conference call that the fuel economy requirements won’t change drastically overnight, but will steadily increase each year.

 

So stupid, its been proven by so many studies that oil is a renewable resource made naturally and not a fossil fuel.

We need to start drilling oil here and having it cost 50 cents a gallon for gas. Oil is never going to run out.

 

Should have probably gone into the politics section because I can see this getting out of hand for this part of the forum.

I think that is quite obtainable. They've come really far in the past 5-7 years. The big question is the cost associated with it. It could increase prices temporarily but due to economies of scale the price may only increase slightly as everyone starts using lighter materials.

Only time will tell though. Oil will run out eventually though. Considering it takes millions of years to create, we use it much quick than its made.

 

My friends dad is a chemical engineer and spokesman for one of the five biggest oil companies in the world. He told me a few years ago that we have almost one hundred years left and that the price will be to much in the last 25 years. The price will cost so much because the remaining oil is "dirty oil" that will require extra processing and cleaning.

 

People predicted the end of cars when the present-day standards were announced, yet I could walk into a dealership and buy a 300 horsepower BASE Mustang today (if I wanted to take on the payments).

BTW Oil drilling in the US is the highest it's been in years, and continues to increase. But oil is consumed by a global market which is increasing rapidly.

 

oil production was at its highest in the 1970's

 

Meh... there are alternatives to oil - oil just has to get and stay at a price where other options are viable like turning coal into fuel, converting over to natural gas, biofuels in various froms, et al.

 

54.5 mpg is easy enough to obtain... if you build cars out of balsa wood and tinfoil.

 

Yayyyyyyyyyyy



More government mandates. Just what everyone needs. This will end well for us all.

You can put what Obama and his minions know about business and economy in a thimble and still have room for your finger. So this should work very well.

 

CAFE is and for the foreseeable future the most politically expedient method of keeping a lid on fuel economy in the US.

Nobody in the government wants to commit suicide by dumping CAFE and going to an increased fuel tax driving people into more fuel efficient cars, ergo all the CAFE silliness (which also dovetails with the EPA's drive for lower carbon emissions in a round about manner).

 

Really?

You've been sold a bill of goods. How about the increased cost to keep up with CAFE standards.

When you **** with the free market you reap what you sow. CAFE is a means to an end. Another infringement of our liberty. Another government mandate to make us drive what they want and how they want. It's like the minimum wage. Why not make CAFE standards 100 mpg or even better 200 mpg?

It's just another form of social engineering propagated by both parties. Liberals with an agenda and moderates who appease.

Everything the government touches is crap. Everything they try to make better they make worse.

When gas becomes too expensive the consumer will decide with their pocket books what to do.

And CAFE like Kyoto doesn't do **** if the US and Europe are the only ones to abide by it or something like it.

 

Seems a touch high, I might have thought 45mpg, but that should save a lot of oil dependence and not melt down our poles quite so quickly perhaps.

People moaned and wailed about all the previous gas standards, but certainly in the past 30 years, auto makers have been quite adept at meeting them without undue costs or hits on performance (example 1: 2013 GT500 whick is easily the fastest, most powerful Mustang ever made, yet you could practically breath out of the tailpipe and the fuel mileage is much better than any '60's/70's Stang of half the power.)

More advanced materials, technologies and design applied to all aspects should be able to meet these targets. Cars have gotten quite big and fat lately, so its not like there isn't some easy trimming that could be done there (example 2: New Mazda 6, which is something like 250lbs lighter than the similar sized outgoing model).

 

How was I sold a bill of goods? The fwds want you into more fuelxeffcient cars ( social engineering). I was poining out that they try and make it more palatable to the public via the CAFE framework. Most non-enthusiasts couldn't give a rat's *** about CAFE. Tell general public that your going to slap a huge gas tax on in an effort to curb fuel use and there will be murder at the polls come election time.

 

There is an easy way around the fleet mpg average. Al an auto maker has to do is produce some electric cars, or build an utra high mpg car like VW is doing...

http://www.leftlanenews.com/volkswagen-xl1.html

 

The increased fuel economy standards and tighter pollution controls over the years have helped result in the power and performance levels we have in cars today. I'd be more worried if the government mandated no more fun-to-drive sports/sporty cars in 2025.

 

Well that's redundant. The standards we were given got us to this point. But without those standards nobody can prove where else we would be.

And to say CAFE standards have given us the higher horsepower cars we have today is unprovable and frankly a little stupid.

We had whatever cars we have because we the consumer demand it. Despite the standards.any still want every spare bit of horsepower they can squeeze out of the car.

 

Great.... If there is a market for such a car. Having a super fuel efficient car to help out your CAFE numbers is one thing, getting the public to buy them is another so that your production mix has a meaningful effect on your CAFE number.