"The Silver Lining Of Obama Motors"

 President Barack Obama, seeking to end a stand-off between states and the auto industry, plans to issue new national emission limits and mileage requirements for cars and trucks. Obama plans to announce on Tuesday that he will couple pollution reduction from vehicle tailpipes with increased efficiency on the road. It would be the first time that limits on greenhouse gases were linked with federal standards for passenger cars and light trucks.

New vehicles would be 30 percent cleaner and more fuel efficient by 2016, according to officials familiar with the administration's discussions. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the formal announcement had not been made.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs would not release details of the announcement on Monday, although he said the administration has been working with states, businesses and environmental groups on a deal.

Obama's move also would effectively end litigation between states and automakers, who sought to block state-specific rules. The new federal rules would prompt automakers to drop their lawsuit. Two car companies who have been part of the litigation, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, have received billions in government loans during a dramatic downturn in car sales and weakened economy.

Auto industry executives, including GM CEO Fritz Henderson, were expected to participate in the announcement along with United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger, industry officials said. (Read Full Article)

“This is a very big deal,” said Daniel Becker of the Safe Climate Campaign, a group that has pushed for tougher mileage and emissions standards with the goal of curbing the heat-trapping gases that have been linked to global warming. “This is the single biggest step the American government has ever taken to cut greenhouse-gas emissions.”

Industry officials spoke on condition of anonymity about the program because they said they did not want to comment publicly in advance of the White House announcement.

The current standards are 27.5 miles a gallon for cars and about 24 miles a gallon for trucks. The new mileage and emissions rules will gradually tighten, beginning with 2011 models, until they reach the 2016 standards.

The auto industry is not expected to challenge the rule, which provides two things they have long asked for: certainty on a timetable and a single national standard. (Read Full Article)

After 100 years in business and 10 months of frenzied but failed restructuring, General Motors Corp is weeks from the bankruptcy filing experts say will be required to complete the Obama administration's bid to reshape a fallen icon of American industry.

Facing a government-imposed June 1 deadline to restructure, GM is scrambling to slash some $27 billion of bond debt, win sweeping cost concessions from the United Auto Workers union and eliminate almost 1,600 U.S. dealers.

But with the clock ticking, experts see it as all but certain GM will follow its smaller rival Chrysler into federal bankruptcy court.

"I almost think it is inevitable," independent auto industry analyst Erich Merkle said. "I don't know how they are going to escape it."

The battery of problems to have hit GM range from plunging sales and declining share to a line-up that has seen more misses than hits over the past decade and that trails engineering leaders like Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co in hybrid technology.

But GM's debt-laden balance sheet is the source of its immediate crisis and the reason restructuring experts, analysts and auto executives do not see a way forward that avoids what could be a complicated and contentious bankruptcy. (Read Full Article)

    One good thing coming out of "Obama Motors", the federal government takeover of US automakers, is a national fuel and emissions standards. Apparently the desired California fuel and emissions standards will be used as the national standard, which is a good thing, as I see it. "Every dark cloud has a silver lining", and it is good to know that when the big three US automakers come out of this industry crisis, they will be making more clean and fuel efficient cars. I pray that Ford Motors can continue to be solvent in it's rebuilding efforts and resist being taken over by the federal government. Nationalization of any industry or business usually doesn't work out very well, because the government tends to over regulation and waste but clean air and fuel efficient cars is definitely an upside to "Obama Motors", as I see it.

tags: obama  gm  chrysler  ford motors  epa  politics  business  fuel and emissions standards  takebackamerica