Chrysler Town And Country Parts

After Years of Resistance, Auto Industry Agrees to New Mileage Standards

As though to prove compromise isn’t as stiff a corpse as it appears, the Obama administration announced on Friday that it had reached a key agreement with an industry proficient at stonewalling government regulation: the automakers. The deal, which meaningfully raises fuel economy standards, was something of a welcome surprise, with the industry putting aside its usual act as regulatory victim and playing the role of committed partner.

President Obama’s claims to the historic nature of the agreement are not overblown. Under the proposal, by 2025, car companies will now be required to reach a 54.5 mpg goal for Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE), meaning that each maker’s fleet of cars or light trucks sold domestically must achieve that mileage per gallon in a particular model year. It’s weighted based on sales, too, so automakers can’t just create a token fuel-sipper and continue to sell nothing but guzzlers.

This is the second time this administration has wrangled higher CAFE standards; in 2009, the near collapse of the industry and bailout allowed it to secure a 35.5 mpg standard for 2016. These achievements—the tremendous environmental and economic benefits of which are outlined well by the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Roland Hwang —follow decades of inaction when successful lobbying stifled progress.

As recently as last week, the industry appeared to be gearing up for an intensified public relations campaign against stricter standards, with its largest lobbying group, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, airing radio ads warning the standards would destroy the economy.

In the end, the automakers were satisfied with what their still-considerable influence in Washington brought them in concessions, including a target mpg lower than the 60-plus supported by leading environmental health groups and diluted standards for so-called light trucks, including SUVs and pickups. Goals for the vehicles that are the most gas-guzzling and polluting—and the most profitable—will be phased in more slowly than goals for cars, with a loophole for big pickups described by Automotive News This truck loophole benefits from a well-worn argument that tougher standards would mean fewer choices for consumers at the showroom. Hardworking rural folk and small business owners, especially, would suffer, denied the ability to own a decent pickup, the industry bleated. Tapping into the culture wars, industry advocates implied that these standards are set by out-of-touch liberal elites who just don’t get how real Americans live. The down-home truth is that the automakers will continue to produce plenty hefty and powerful pickups and still meet the standards, which require only that they achieve a mean, sales-weighted average mpg across their fleets. While pickups on average may downsize, trucks have been on a course of steroids over recent decades, with some so-called half-ton trucks now capable of carrying a ton or more of cargo , far in excess of the needs of most buyers.