Between all of the folks sponsoring and counter-sponsoring legislation to raise/lower/maintain CAFE standards, even AutoMK is losing track. The latest news is that a hearing to approve the most recent bill, sponsored by House Reps Rick Boucher (D-VA) and John Dingell (D-MI), has been canceled because the two Congressmen can't get majority support. That's the bill that would also bar states from deciding their own CO2 emissions levels/fuel economy standards. The bill isn't dead, the discussion has simply been pushed back. That's bad news, though, for automakers, who like the Boucher/Dingell bill better than the stricter legislation that will be debated in the Senate next week.
At the same time, the President signed an order for a group of federal agencies to establish CO2 limits by the end of 2008, even as the White House has come back this week with a firm "No comment" on whether CO2 is an air pollutant. The EPA, given the authority by the Supreme Court to rule on such matters, and the NHTSA "refused to endorse or oppose any of the proposals" on CAFE standards that Congress is currently debating.
[Source: Detroit News]
