Okay, so maybe secession is too strong a word. Still, buying a new car in California in the coming years may mean less horsepower and more bureaucratic red tape [Ed Note: Though the death of fun cars has been predicted ever other year for the past 3.5 decades, and new cars are more potent than ever]. Today the EPA granted California complete control over emissions standards for new cars and trucks beginning with this model year. Apparently, due to the crazy amount of pollution in California (and I would know as I live 20 min outside Downtown LA) California feels, nay, felt that it needed more stringent pollution control and thus petitioned the EPA. After originally rejecting California’s bid for independent regulation in March of last year, the EPA reconsidered as per a request made by President Obama in January. I am not sure how the state plans to cut down on emissions, be it bigger catalytic converters or more restrictive air filters but one group of new vehicles is going to be hit hard: new diesels. Stay tuned on this issue as I am sure more issues will arise. [Source: EPA]

Looks like we jumped the gun a little bit yesterday (along with the rest of the universe) by reporting that President Obama would announce today that passenger cars must average 42 mpg by 2016. Whoops. Turns out they must average 39 mpg. Adding in the increase in light truck mileage, the industry will be looking at a fleet average of 35.5 mpg. The kicker? The industry likes it. Check this quote, “The announcement today by President Obama is a major step in the right direction for automotive manufacturers in the United States such as the BMW Group.” So says Friedrich Eichiner, Member of the Board of Management of BMW, a company that has never once met a CAFE standard and honestly doesn’t stand much of a chance by 2016. The big reason why of course is giving the industry one set of standards to focus on makes it easier (read: cheaper) for them. Details? Jump.

One standard also removes a lot of the loopholing and bureaucracy involved in the emissions game. Previously, states like California could use language from the EPA’s clean air act to concoct more stringent standards. Then there’s the Department of Transportation that has their own ideas. With today’s announcement, California is pledging to support the act, and the EPA and DOT are signing on as well.

States and environmental groups have agreed to drop a number of major lawsuits against the Federal Government as part of today’s rule.

This plan will cost the average consumer $1,300 per new car. However, since those new cars will be getting much greater mileage, those same consumers will be saving $2,800 in gas. In other words, you’re getting $1,500 back.

Greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by 30% by 2016. In fact, the 1.8 billion barrels of oil America will be saving is the equivalent to getting rid of 58 million cars.

Analysis? Well… This is looking pretty good. In a rare coup, Obama has found a way to get environmentalists and manufacturers to agree to a single piece of legislation. Sure, I worry that performance cars might get the short end of the stick, but technology (when forced at gunpoint) has always kept pace with rising fuel standards. I’m thinking us pistonheads are going to be OK. And we’ll get a cleaner, safer planet in the process. Win win? Big time maybe. [Source: MSNBC]

The EPA has rules that CARB would not be able to mandate California-only emissions standards for new vehicles produced under the new CAFE standard. Under current laws, CARB has been able to force OEs to produce California-specific models. Obviously, this adds to the production costs of vehicles as a separate model with different emissions equipment have to be made on the line. CARB, in reaction to the EPA’s ruling, has vowed to fight the decision.

Mary Nichols, CARB’s head cheese, told engineers at an SAE conference that her organization’s plan would increase the variety of alternative, fuel-efficient vehicles and give the industry time and flexibility to meet the standards. Nichols said she was confident the next presidential administration would allow California to set the nation’s first greenhouse gas limits on cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles. All three of the remaining White House hopefuls have expressed support for a waiver allowing the California regulations to be enacted.

The Environmental Protect Agency in December blocked California and about 16 other states to impose tough regulations on emissions. California officials have said their program would cut emissions by one-third in new vehicles by 2016 and increase fuel efficiency to about 36.8 mpg.

EPA officials, in their denial, said the energy bill signed by President Bush would boost fuel economy standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 while providing a national approach for reducing emissions.

Automakers have opposed California’s standards, saying a national approach authored by the federal government would allow the industry to aim for one standard.

Dave McCurdy, a former Oklahoma congressman who leads the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said car makers would face different compliance requirements in each state that adopts California’s approach, causing confusion in the marketplace.

McCurdy said he was hopeful that the industry and government could find a national approach next year "that doesn’t deny California the opportunity to be a laboratory but doesn’t impose their standards from an agency that’s not looking at the national level."

As a resident of Southern California, the problem isn’t miles per gallon. Rather, it’s a) the lack of a good public transportation infrastructure; b) too many cars on the road, many of them operating illegally (unregistered, uninsured, unlicensed); c) too many cars in disrepair; and d) no incentive for people to get out of their cars.

I’ve changed my mind. This author now believes that the new CAFE standard is sufficient and there’s no need for CARB to cry wolf. Frankly, it’s arrogant for CARB to believe that it can usurp federal regulations. They’re merely trying to save their jobs and assert their right to exist. California is no more special than the rest of the union and certainly not above the US Constitution which mandates that state laws cannot supersede federal laws. And politicians claiming support for CARB is mere election year fodder that really doesn’t mean much to average Joes like you and me.

Let’s hope that CARB will wisely back down from this rather unnecessary battle at the cost of tax payers.

[Source: Associated Press]

Automakers have balked at a new CAFE standard for quite some time now, as elevating miles per gallon figures for their cars costa just a tad more (I’m joking, of course) in R&D. Throw in California’s demand for vehicles that meet CARB standards – considering the Golden State is the biggest automotive market in the country, it exercises quite a bit of leverage – and you have the OE’s having to produce variants of the same vehicle – one for 49 states and one for California. That’s just the way it has been.

Needless to say, OE’s jumping on the new CAFE bandwagon came as a surprise to many people. Had the green bug bitten them as well? Perhaps, perhaps not. It has surfaced that the EPA has denied California and 16 other states the right to set their own emissions standards. It has been a trend of late for other states to adopt CARB’s emissions standards (something they should have done a long time ago, IMHO) and this is going to be a great setback for them. The EPA’s decision basically renders CARB an irrelevant entity. Now, there’s probably some sort of legal / constitutional argument that could be made – rights of states vs. rights of the federal government – and it’s already started a fuss in Sacramento, as The Governator has threatened to sue the EPA over its decision. Even Congress has jumped into the fray, requesting all internal and external communication from the EPA regarding this decision.

So is this a case of the EPA in collusion with the automakers? Perhaps not.

Here’s one way to look at it. You have to give a little in order to get a little. To get the automakers to agree to the new CAFE standard, the EPA had to pony up something in return. Manufacturing two different versions of the same car is an engineering pain in the ass, to be truthful. If automakers had to produce an X number of variants of the same vehicle to meet emissions standards state by state, well, you can already imagine the quagmire that would create. If the automakers had to bend to agree to the new CAFE standard, they probably wanted something in return. It’s simple political negotiation. Looks like they got what they wanted.

Although I may not agree or disagree with the EPA decision, which may not set in stone at this point, I understand why and how it happened. I wouldn’t send hate mail to the EPA just yet. More facts need to surface.

With that being said, wouldn’t it be so much easier for the EPA to just adopt CARB’s emissions standards for the entire country? Then the automakers can simply produce cars based on that more stringent standard. What do YOU think? Let me know your thoughts.