Obama to Push Process for EPA to Grant States Waiver to Implement Stricter Clean Air Laws*

Gallup released a poll last week that showed that environmental concerns were dead last among the things that Amreican’s are most concerned with. Leave it to Obama to whip a dead horse.

Hmm
Sounds like right wing conservative whining in those comments.
Let them design car that meets the most stringent standard, and that ONE designs will then meet or exceed ALL the standards.
Too difficult to figure out, or are all republicans as dense as W?

Here we go finally… let the states make their own decissions…. as long as they are as good or better than the federal regs.
I already have an 08 Prius… a good start. Solar heat, extra insulation, e windows, CFB’s and LED lights….
The best we can do is to conserve what we have…better vehicle standards will do that.

James, welcome to the new America where no concern is too small to bother with

I think the economy tanking will facilitate cleaner air more than any legislation will. Trimmer waistlines will also be coming to a neighbor near you.

Sometimes we act before we think in this country.
They passed a law, I think, last year that required 10% Bio fuels to be put into all Gasoline. Good idea most would say, but guess what. It caused the price for all Cow feed to double in less then a year. A 50 lb bag of 12% Sweet feed used to be about 4.89, now it costs about 10.00. Chicken scratch used to cost about 7.00 for a 50 lb bag, now it is about 14.00. Food that a lot of organizations use to feed the starving in Africa (mostly made of the same foods they make Bio Fuel) doubled and they could only feed less.
They are slashing and burning more and more Rain Forest to make more room to grow switch grass and corn to produce more bio-fuel.
If you ever raised corn, you would know that you have to dump a lot of fertilizer on the ground to do so.
I think getting rid of Oil and finding other alternative fuels is a great thing. BUT, we can’t be stupid about what we do and just do something because it sounds good.
It is like jumping out of the frying pan before noticing the only place you can go is into the fire.

Can electric cars go up those steep mountian grades?

How are auto manufacturers, not just American
manufacturers, but all manufacturers supposed to
design automobiles? A different design for each
state? The cost of a new car will skyrocket…
Posted by: abc4111
*********************************
With this type anal retention reply of doom and
gloom, it makes me wonder how the big three
survived this long. Our foreign
car makers already meet the California (one of the
most rigid standards). If those clowns weren’t so
time invested in their worry of bonuses, perks,
job banks,seniority, executive jets and country
club memberships, maybe they could spend a lot
more time and energy in R & D instead of R & R.

Ajax- Is it corn based ethanol you’re thinking of? With biofuels, you can use a wide range of stuff like cooking grease and it only mixes with diesel.

This is BIG!!!!
Green Economy Here We Come!!!!
Now THIS is CHANGE that we can believe in!!!

Wow, he really must have shorted the domestic auto stocks.

Lip service, but politicians seem adept at that.
Institute all the regulations you can, it won’t help. There is no way to reduce pollution levels as long as human population continues to grow. More people = more pollution, fewer people = less pollution. Any remedy that does not include efforts to reduce birth rate is a waste of time, effort and will only serve as “feel good legislation”. You feel better but you didn’t accomplish anything.

Oh and BTW, I don’t mean bullet trains. I mean the magnetic levitation trains that are pollution free (ex: Maglev). Imagine the things we can do with that kind of technology including job creation for the future (and there IS an American patent on the technology).

This president has no common sense at all

Yes, I was referring to Corn when talking about price spikes in Animal Feed and Human Corn based food.
Yes, I know you can make Bio fuel from a lot of different sources. Most in the US come from CORN, because Corn can be grown better in most US places. Sugar Cane is in the south. Hell, you can make it from Grapes, Apples, and a lot of other sources. Anything you can ferment and make into alcohol can be used. Hell, MOONSHINE will work. :)
Switch grass is the one I understand is the best. More Alcohol per polution amount produced. Switch grass and Sugar Cane are what all the slash and burning in the South American Rain Forest is for.

drjohn: actually, the named states were in the process of suing the feds in order to be allowed to do exactly what the president is giving them the right to do. they were in more danger of wasting money on the lawsuit…
and abc41111? if the big three had gotten on the lower emissions bandwagon years ago, instead of dragging their feet, perhaps they would already be able to meet those more stringent demands. oh, and possibly not be near backruptcy…

The economy is in the tank, the automakers are at risk of going under, so Obama allows California to have stricter emission and mileage laws than the feds? A recent scientific study concluded twenty years of tighter and tighter air quality regs have resulted in our life expectancy being extended by 5 months. How many billions and billions did we spend for practically nothing? I say a few of the major automakers should tell California, we’re sorry, we won’t sell our cars in the People’s Republic anymore.

Let California go broke enjoying their air quality.

By the time magnetic levitation trains could be implemented, there would already be a substantial wind and solar energy alternative to conventional electricity production. What naysayers!

Has anybody heard of hemp it can grow practically anywhere and it can be made into ethonal.it won’t effect food prices at all so it would solve the whole problem but it has been neglected because people think that hemp is marijauna but its not there’s actually a hemp plant that’s drug free so it can not get people high so why can’t we use that….its because everyone wants to make everything difficult

What an idiot. You can’t change things overnight without an expense being felt somewhere in the economy. This will be the nail in the coffin of the big three and then the idiot will lose the backing of one of his biggest supporters the UAW when they no longer have a job. All of the money he is talking about for jobs will only create temporary jobs, ie once the government funding is removed the job is gone. Need to create private sector jobs which are the result of demand by something other than government funding/contract. Problem with the schools is the teachers union which makes it difficult to get rid of poor performing teachers. need to goto a system where the teacher performs to a defined level or hits the road. Also need to go to a system which will let parents take the money which would go towards a public school (school vouchers) and enroll their child in a private school if they desire. The private schools must be doing something right as they routinely turn out students who perform at a level above those from the public schools.

Does ABC have anybody that proofreads their stuff??? Almost every article has typo’s.

Regarding designing one car to meet the strictest standard, what happens when the next state passes an even stricter standard? Redesign everything? At what cost? Do we really want that?
Do we really want state x passing stricter standards simply to force the coal burning plant to the next state? Do we want state y lowering its standards to attract industry or power generation to an economically depressed area?
Please, this policy makes no sense at all.

Man this is gonna tick off the usual crowd of anti-environmental, pro-gas guzzling buffoons.
But enough about Detroit CEOs and their dupes in talk radio.

GREAT move !!
At times when you go jogging you feel like you will pass out , so much smog in the AIR.At times i feel like iam in CHINA.

What gives? Repubs/anti-environmentalists are always screaming for states rights and deregulation and when Obama gives it to them on emissions and fuel economy, they cry foul…

Y’all don’t get the problem. Its not about meeting stricter laws – it is about the added cost of having to certify 14 different times in 14 different ways. When states enact such laws, they enact very different rules of how to prove you meet them. This isn’t a Big 3 issue either. Toyota and Honda will need to increase the cost of the cars to pay for all this additional testing. So this is about hitting consumers in the pocket and slowing the delivery of new car designs for ALL manufacturers.

Toyota and Honda (as well as Ford, GM, and all other cars which are sold here) already do these test for the European market anyways. The test do not have to be repeated. The proposed laws are all (with maybe the excaption of California, are anyway much weaker than the European Union and individual European countries regulations).
Many of the test, like checking emission levels, are not expensive. Heck, I have to have my emission levels checked every two years. That cost me about 40 dollars.

It is great to have a president who isn’t always on vacation.
WHAT A WONDERFUL CHANGE!

Wouldn’t it be better if everyone had the same rules in place? Doesn’t the multiple blends of gasoline required in different places help to increase its’ cost?
If companies flee overseas where there is little or no controls does that help any of us? Don’t we all enjoy the same air?

all states should have the same emissions and pollution laws and regulations. winds move pollution all over the world. TX sometimes gets china’s pollution due to winds. air does not stay over a clean or dirty air state. as important as this is, it is still the economy stupid!

Why is it that foreign automakers seem to have no problem producing energy-efficient cars while US automakers continually roll out lead sleds. It’s about time we quit pretending that pollution doesn’t matter and that oil will last forever.

Frank Calderone – You stated that Obama will be great for your state of Pennsylvania because every student needs laptops of their own and your state needs better infrastructure. Are you kidding? Your state is one of the worst in the union. You’ve got one of the worst crime rates than any other state. You’ve got 15 year old girls giving birth for the second time in their lives. I think you need to solve far more worse problems than giving each student a laptop or fixing “infrastructure”. This is the stupidity that Obama brings along and that is this-he thinks throwing money at the problem is the solution. What a joke. Pennsylvania doesn’t need more money, they need a culture change.

Being green just got easier!
*Yawn* another debate as to why the interests of businesses supersedes those of states and the people living in those states?

It will force car manufacturers to manufactur cares to the toughest standards that meet all state needs.
I support this.. and this is why I voted for Obama, because he will push issues that actually matter

This is getting really scary!! Pelosi wants to pay out our money for other peoples contraciptives…..CitiBank just bought a brand new 50 million dollar jet with our money…..OBama wants to start taking away states rights and we’re all suppose to sit back and let them destroy our lives like good little citizens. Let’s start a 2 terms limit campaign and get these nuts out of Washington!!!!!!!!!!

“Being green just got easier!
*Yawn* another debate as to why the interests of businesses supersedes those of states and the people living in those states?
”
Then why waste $50B (I know, chump change) bailing the automakers out if you plan on killing them with this measure?
Just close them all down now and save the $50B. And the inevitable next round of bailouts.

Joe faraway wrote: “The 100% GM company Opel in Germany makes a few cars that meet the regulations. It would be simple for them to produce the same car in the US, since they own the rights to the designs. These cars are also not more expensive than the cars on the US market now.”
Joe that’s not entirely true as any vehicle made in Europe has to meet different standards than those in the US. Most vehicles created within the EU lack the proper emissions required by the EPA for US as well as several DOT requirements for safety (i.e. side impact, belts and restraints, etc depending on vehicle) which prevents them from getting approval for US sales and/or importation. This is specifically true for any diesel powered vehicles.
For example Jeep offers their Rubicon model with a 2.9 CRD diesel engine throughout the EU; however, it can’t be offered in the United States due to the stricter emission regulations in the US and more so in California. While it gets on average around 30mpg on the highway because it lacks the “necessary” emission standards that are needed on diesel vehicles sold in the United States it isn’t offered.
Ed at 5:37am nailed it on the head. Currently our high EPA and DOT standards make it almost impossible for foreign makers to enter our market or offer their full production line. If you add to the mix allowing states to set their own specific emissions and possibly DOT regulations you make it almost impossible for companies to make a competitive car that would be acceptable for sale if the state sets the laws excessively high. Who’s to say in 10 years we won’t have regulation about how much power a hybrid vehicle draws during peak time thus making all manufacturers retool or attempt to implement unproven (and potentially unsafe) technologies.

LLU:
If you read the article, these were the only states that were banned by Bush not to have clean air rights. Everyone else HAS them. There is not a need to give a waiver to a state that decide freely. Get my drift?

“If you read the article, these were the only states that were banned by Bush not to have clean air rights. Everyone else HAS them. ”
Yeah, thats a fair summary. Lol

It’s great to have a REAL President in the White House for a change. President Obama is doing the right thing by reversing Bush’s policies, or should I say lack of policies. President Obama cares deeply about America. Bush never did.

I think BO is just pretending to be President, he’s really doing paper pushing right now for Pelosi. If he wants to go on record as doing a great thing, give him a few pens and let him undo the financial mess Clinton caused in 1999 by deregulating the financial institutions, letting them charge whatever interest rate they feel they want for that day. Also giving lending institutions the right to lend money to folks who couldn’t buy a loaf of bread with a weeks worth of paycheck.
BO need to clean up Clinton’s messes.
If all BO intends to do is reverse this and that, and close this and that, and sign away his better judgement, then what changes was he talking about for our nation? Is he just a Pelsoi paper pusher? She needs to go do something else so our country can heal – and let BO read and research before he signs paperwork for 4 years because she says so.

Mavsreader:
“As for the bailout: Can America stand to have that many men and women unemployed? If you say, “Yes” then don’t bail them out. If you say, “No” then do. ”
Effectively these state EPA rules eliminate the ability of car companies to sell classes of cars into the markets. For instance, the Dodge Challenger is a perfectly viable car that Chrysler makes a lot of money on. Will they be able to sell it?
Detroit makes their money selling good to great minivans, pickups, and suv’s. If you exclude the ability to sell those vehicles why are you bailing out Detroit? They loose money on every small car, so bailout money is just going to be thrown away.
If you think it is so easy thing to make money on small cars (or hold the quixotic idea that somehow politicians can run the business better) consider Jack Welsh’s philosophy that you need to be #1 or #2 in a market to be profitable.
If we have Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Toyota, Kia, BMW, VW, Hyundai all making small fuel efficient cars, how are you going to wedge all of GM, Ford and Chrysler’s production in that one market segment and have profits?

hil: This is more an interstate commerce issue than an environmental issue. When there are too many different laws and regulations, commerce stops or is greatly inhibited. The cost of goods go up with no real benefit to the consumer. It creates another layer of unneeded beauracracy. I have bought cars in other states because they were cheaper. That practice will stop when my state enacts more “feel-good” regulations.

Obama is a despot. I daresay, most of you who voted for his undefined “change” will rue the day you pulled that lever.

That’s because Obama believes that Al Gore’s movie is fact rather then laughable cartoon fiction. We now have a president who is so arrogant that he has just determined that your next new car will be a 3 or 4 cylinder putput mobile. ..and if you pay enough money for it and drive a ridiculous enough car, the earth’s temperature will become colder! LOL ’cause al gore said so!! LOL By the way, the democrat media never told you that gore has 4 year degree in government where he finished at the bottom fifth of his class. When crude oil is sold on a GLOBAL MARKET, what does “energy independence” even mean? Does Obama know that our refineries are designed for LSC oil from SA and not domestic sources? No. Why? Because he’s a junior senator with a half page resume and you elected him! Now you all get to see what George W. Bush was protecting the American people from!! LOL …you’re screwed!! LOL

This is the kind of leadership we need! Feel good legislation that doesn’t address the problem!
That’s change you can believe in!
Wait, Washington has been doing that for years, where’s the change?
Try addressing the root problem before you break your arm patting yourself on the back.

I think CrashNebula got it all wrong. Near my house is a US Auto import business. They must make changes to nearly all the imported US cars because they do not meet the environmental regulations of the German government (which are the highest in the world). As far as safety goes, the cars must go through the same crash test and meet the same safety standards as the US cars do. The EPA’s standards are way below that of almost all European countries. There is a documentary on PBS which also mentions this. Furthermore, the environmental regulations on cars have been risen twice in the last 10 years in Germany.
As far as safety goes, the US rating system is less rigid as the European system. I quote the web page Safety Car Guide
“Although similar to the American IIHS testing regimen, there is considerable variation between IIHS and the Euro-NCAP chest compression criteria. In particular, more lenient standards in the US for chest compression resulted in discrepancies between IIHS and Euro-NCAP ratings. This has led to some vehicles receiving a markedly different rating under Euro-NCAP compared with IIHS or previous Australian-NCAP procedures. “

If I want to drive a Hummer so what.President Obama tax all cars not made in the usa. they tax ours