Sierra Club May Force Automakers to Deepen Cuts in Fuel, Carbon

[steinravnik]

Sierra Club May Force Automakers to Deepen Cuts in Fuel, Carbon



July 23 (Bloomberg) -- The Sierra Club is on the verge of forcing automakers to raise U.S. vehicle fuel economy 22 percent more than Congress ordered last December.

California and 13 other states are set to impose the first U.S. limits on vehicle emissions of carbon dioxide, linked to global warming. While the Bush administration has put the rules on hold, the two presidential candidates, Democratic Senator Barack Obama and Republican Senator John McCain, say they would clear the states to put them into effect.

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions to the level set by California would raise average fuel economy to about 43 miles per gallon by 2020, according to the California Air Resources Board, the state's emissions regulator. Automakers' costs would jump $13 billion a year starting in 2016, when the rules would take full effect, based on an industry-commissioned analysis.

``If the states win, the country will import significantly less fuel and there will be significantly less greenhouse gas emissions,'' says Lee Schipper, emeritus senior associate at the World Resources Institute's Center for Sustainable Transport. People ``will look back and thank the big states for taking the lead in the absence of leadership from Washington.''

Congress voted last year to raise average fuel economy to 35 mpg from the 27.5 mpg in effect since 1985. While that would have the effect of lowering carbon dioxide emissions, the California standard would result in a 40 percent greater reduction, according to the state clean-air board.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aIVcWtqi4kFs

[steinravnik]

That's a pretty scary picture...

[FenwickHockey65]

The Sierra Club wants to raise fuel economy?

Oh the irony.

[unkillsam]

Oh yeah let's pass 13 billion dollars of additional cost onto the US consumer plus the fact that gas will probably be double of what it is now by 2016 and then turn around and tell the average Joe that this is somehow good for him.

[Rick_VT]

And who are the Sierra club and why do they have so much power to do something like this??

[K-1]

By the time these "great" ideas filter into and replace the current crop of operating vehicles, the number of new drivers from population increases will put us right back where we are currently carbon-wise.

OT: I saw Carl Pope (Executive Director) on the Colbert Report last night. The guy had the worst tar stains on his teeth that I have ever seen. How much carbon is released by smoking twelve packs a day?

[K-1]

Originally Posted by Rick_VT

And who are the Sierra club and why do they have so much power to do something like this??

Environmental nut-job lobbyists. Money is the only thing that talks in D.C. and they have plenty of fund-raising ability.

[kodos78]

I'm ready to leave California. We get crap gas, we need any mods to our vehicles to meet CARB emissions standards, we have a terrible local and state government. The burden on businesses is extreme as well. There's been talk at work about moving our company out of state, or at least starting a new division as well (this is not isolated to our company or our industry either). I'll volunteer to be the first one out.

It's too bad -- this was such a great state in its heydey, and you could not ask for a more beautiful place to live. I can go surfing, hiking, skiing, all within 0.5-2 hours of where I live. Not many places like that.

[mbukukanyau]

Americans better reign in these groups. They subvert the democratic process. They are a danger to society.
Our democracy is based on one person one vote, not a bunch of nut jobs getting their way through the back door.

Ironic the "democratic party" whom we learnt recently elects its party candidates through party puba's is controlled by these 3 groups,
1. Enviromental Nut Jobs
2. Social re-engineering nut jobs, inluding PP/ad hoc long hair hippies (anti way code pink types ) and *** groups
3. Unions and now as manufacturing union die, government employee unions are demanding more and more

[EldoFan]

It's still possible for people in California and other places to grow a pair, send this measure to defeat and tell the enviro-nazis what they really think.......though time is running out I fear

[AndrewGS]

My Gun Club is thinking about requiring the federal government to subsidize 90% of a firearm's cost in the states of Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Alaska.

[steinravnik]

Originally Posted by kodos78

I'm ready to leave California. We get crap gas, we need any mods to our vehicles to meet CARB emissions standards, we have a terrible local and state government. The burden on businesses is extreme as well. There's been talk at work about moving our company out of state, or at least starting a new division as well (this is not isolated to our company or our industry either). I'll volunteer to be the first one out.

It's too bad -- this was such a great state in its heydey, and you could not ask for a more beautiful place to live. I can go surfing, hiking, skiing, all within 0.5-2 hours of where I live. Not many places like that.

It is too bad. I used to live in San Diego and loved it. Everyone that I knew when I lived there (many of them natives), have packed up and left, especially the young people. One moved to Texas, another to Georgia. All left because it was too expensive to start out in life. Unfortunate.

[johnny smallblock]

People should not be allowed to join together and demand change from their government. Only big companies get to do that.

And by the way, the Sierra Club isn't forcing anybody to do anything. The government makes the rules. The American government is elected buy the people they represent. You don't like the American system of government, pick another country to live in.
Love it or leave it!

[AndrewGS]

Originally Posted by johnny smallblock

People should not be allowed to join together and demand change from their government. Only big companies get to do that.

And by the way, the Sierra Club isn't forcing anybody to do anything. The government makes the rules. The American government is elected buy the people they represent. You don't like the American system of government, pick another country to live in.
Love it or leave it!

It's not the fact that people want to make a change, it's that these kinds of policies shouldn't be brought about by a special interest group. I say they let the people vote on the issue instead of lobby congress.

It's also the right of the manufacturers to stop selling their products in those states or charge more to either meet the requirements or pay the fines.

The title of the article is also comical in that it implies a special interest group with no authority will directly force a manufacturer to change it's product.

[wildgoosechase]

So how does the Sierra club force the change? It's called the court system. Why bother with the Legislature when you can sue and get some activist judges to write law from the bench. Much easier that way, cheaper than bribes too.