Monday, May 18, 2009

Tougher Fuel Standards

by Jessica Goerke

Tomorrow President Obama will announce his new federal rules regarding auto emissions and mileage standards. As the article points out, the regulations should result in cleaner and more fuel efficient vehicles by 2016.

I see two sides to this issue...

1. During these harder economic times it seems counterproductive to place regulations on industry, particularly the auto companies. These regulations sound expensive to not only implement but also enforce, resulting in higher car prices for consumers. Will this spiral our economy farther downwards and bankrupt our car companies even more?

2. On the other hand, however, the United States has been severely lagging in the environmental department. With government control over certain car companies, this is probably the most ideal time to implement such reforms. If our government is having to bail these companies out, the least the can do is follow the new rules. It may be expensive initially but it is arguably for the best. There is no doubt that America needs to lessen its dependence on foreign oil.

1 comment:

Justin Lynch said...

About the first view:

Ford, GM and Chrysler made cars that got far worse fuel mileage than foreign manufacturers. Producing gas guzzlers (not to mention overall crappy cars) has lost GM the top spot in the world. We're playing catchup with Toyota and Honda, and these are realistic standards for our car companies to respond to the needs of the market.