Automakers Outraged by NHTSA Fuel Efficiency Standards
On Detnews.com, there is an article written by David Shepardson of the Detroit News Washington Bureau. The article is called “Automakers: NHTSA fuel economy increase will cost up to 82,000 jobs.” The article is about how the NHTSA is making the fuel efficiency standards quite high, and the automakers are furious about it because they say that this will really hurt their companies. The NHTSA wants the fuel economy requirements to be 35.7 mpg for passenger cars and 28.6 mpg for light trucks starting with the 2011 model year. According to the automakers, this is too excessive and this “goes beyond what is technologically feasible and economically practical.” The automakers say that this proposal could eliminate anywhere from 9,000 to 82,000 jobs and reduce auto sales by as little as 98,000 vehicles or as many as 856,000 vehicles.
Here is the question to ponder……clearly we are at a crossroads in the American society with the price of fuel quickly becoming less and less affordable to the average American. So the question is this….do we move swiftly to a 35 mpg vehicle, some say yes, it will drive down the price of gasoline, our dependency on foreign oil, and help the environment, or do we move gradually to minimize the impact on the business community and our economy? What do you think??????