Obama to allow states to set their own emissions standards

[Sequoia]

this is not good. The feds should govern emission levels. A country divided upon beliefs will have a hard time getting things done.

 

[ExpectantlyIronic]

Ideally what you want to see with emissions standards, is simply an alteration in buying habits caused by an alteration in what is being marketed to and made available to people. You would hope that the costs associated with the standards would be made up for by the reduction in unnecessary fuel consumption, and by auto manufacturers making more appealing cars due to their R&D efforts, and thus having increased sales. That last part is questionable, but in the long term, I imagine the R&D efforts will end up saving auto manufacturers money simply because they will save money in terms of fuel costs (which seems somewhat ironic).

Now, I will agree that now seems a bad time to be implementing emissions standards, but companies have until 2016 to comply with the California law (I believe); and I do think such standards will improve the economy in the long term. Plus, automakers know they're coming eventually, so they're going to spend money preparing to comply regardless of this particular action on the part of Obama.

 

[Smelnick]

In Canada here, when gas prices sky rocketed, car sales went down and a couple factories have shut down as a result. If the cost of cars go up as a result of the emmission standards, would not something similiar happen in the states?

 

[Stab-o-Matic5000]

Maybe you aren't getting my underlying point here. This is about personal choice and liberty. Since when have we become a nation where the government can tell private industry what to do?

I've already laid out that CO2 is not a greenhouse gas, it's plant food and no regulation by man will have and effect on the environment as nature dwarfs any man made attempt to control CO2.

America is all about free choice, not Soviet socialist state run industry.

The EPA already had regulations that car companies were forced to comply to. The government has been telling private industry what it can and can not do for at least a century, I believe, in one form or another. I also find it ironic that Obama makes a move that supports the 10th amendment, giving states more free reign to govern themselves, and yet, you call it the federal government being a Soviet socialist state.

You can't just push the price of new cars up and expect people to keep buying. Give people the choice between buying a 2009 car that cost $20,000 or a 2010 car with new emissions that costs $10,000 more(depriciation + emissions) and its easy to see this could collapse the auto industry. Maybe its a good idea, but this is the wrong time to do it. Economic recovery or a few more cleaner cars?

The numbers put out by the car industry are thankfully not that high, they estimate the increase will be somewhere from $1,000 to $5,000.