California’s Air Resources Board has been the driving force behind a patchwork of state-by-state emissions regulations, but CARB could be taking a step back from its original proposal. On Monday, Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols announced she would consider regional requirements rather than state-by-state standards.
Automakers and dealerships have widely contested California’s emissions standards — which have been adopted by 13 states — as they would cause a patchwork of regulations that would make it nearly impossible for automakers to comply with. California enacted its emissions standards in 2002, which would require an automaker’s fleet to average 36.8 mpg by 2016. Current CAFE standards call for a 35 mpg average by 2020.
If California is allowed to set its own standards — along with the states that have adopted California’s standards — most automakers would be unable to sell the majority of their lineup in those states. GM has already said that the regulations would prevent it from selling about 80 percent of its vehicles in those markets and would significantly increase all vehicle pricing, according to The Detroit News. The patchwork would also force automakers to make several different variations of a single model, which would also drive up prices.
Dealers in California are also concerned because the regulations would encourage buyers to purchase larger vehicles from less stringent states.
However, Nichols says that the automakers and dealers are over-playing the standards and that “a little bit of creative repackaging” is all the automakers need to do to meet the regulations. She added: “We’re not talking about pushing beyond the limits of what the industry can do.”
CARB’s proposed standards seem a little on the extreme side, especially when you consider this is the same organization that killed its ZEV Mandate due to pressure from the automakers just a few years ago. We can only imagine how far along the electric car would be today if CARB hadn’t backed down from its original mandate.
05/14, 4:11 PM
posted by:
hbcbob3
i cannot stand this ****. these people, sorry, jackasses running this board making all these decisions have absolutely no clue about emissions and what it already takes to produce a vehicle. i don’t care what any of you have to say about my rant, but emissions are a complete and absolute joke. “oh but without them, global warming would be terrible”. global warming is a G-D cycle. i just can’t stand when you get these uppidy, yuppie ****suckers in these types of positions making decisions when they have absolutely no clue about what the requirements or constraints are to what they are bitching about.
land of the “free” my ass. it’s people like this who are making canada look more and more promising.
05/14, 4:15 PM
posted by:
F3INT))AP3X
God knows I’ve thought of it haha
05/14, 4:25 PM
posted by:
Get Real
CARB = Gestapo = KGB
05/14, 4:58 PM
posted by:
inspire
If CARB did not exist, most of California would be under a thick haze on any given day. People would respiratory diseases would be hospitalized, more children would have asthma attacks … overall health of the state would be a lot worse than it is today.
And if CARB did not exist, what would force manufacturers to increase fuel economy? One may argue the price of oil .. however, designing and building such cars takes several years to make it to market. Take a look at what we have now — oil at $125+/barrel … and what do Ford / Chrysler / GM have to offer as fuel efficient cars? Ford has the Focus; GM has their Korean rebranded cars; Chrysler … ? How long will it take for the Big 3 (domestics) have fuel efficient cars?
I can guarantee that the cost of oil will go down a lot faster if America was not so dependent on oil. Is anyone going to argue that the US is the world’s largest consumer of oil?
05/14, 5:00 PM
posted by:
Spingood Tanoya
This article sounds like a GM press release. “Waah. With these standards, we’ll just pull out of the California market and besides, our cars will cost, like, a kajillion dollars if we meet those standards, and we won’t be able to sell Hummers to soccer moms, either! GM needs a hug!”
Then someone will point out to GM that California is the 6th or 7th largest economy in the world, buys a huge number of cars each year, and that other manufacturers will be overjoyed to step up and sell all the cars and trucks that GM doesn’t want to….
It would be better if GM just came out and said, “Our engineers really aren’t very good and we have no hope of meeting these proposed standards. We’ll just let the guys from Ford, Toyota, Honda, BMW, VW, etc., own this market, ’cause we’re darn sure not competent enough to deal with this. Now excuse us while we go back to developing more fake wood trim for our interiors.”
05/14, 5:20 PM
posted by:
xyunya
GetReal, what KGB did to you to put in such company?
Spingood Tanoya, it is not only GM who is whining: Ford, Chrysler and even Toyota join the fray.
Reality is that they all will meet 2020 35 mpg standard earlier, because it is not that difficult. Cars (and trucks) will be lighter and will accelerate a little slower. Top speed not need to be affected. if you look on statistics in UK, most of manufacturers are within fleet 35 mpg for cars and SUV/CUV. If it can be done in Europe, it can be done in US. And the reason I suggest to look for England because they use gallons and miles. If you convert liters and kilometers, the rest of the Europe probably more frugal. And I am talking today.
05/14, 6:16 PM
posted by:
howsmydriving
CARB rocks. GM is principal whiner, loves to blame its troubles on the government.
05/14, 6:35 PM
posted by:
LaCaLover
I don’t know any fellow Californians who hate CARB. It’s the red states holding us back, AGAIN
05/14, 6:51 PM
posted by:
C6Racer
I’m a Californian for life. I fukin HATE CARB. They did some good things but, they just do not know where to stop.
05/14, 9:17 PM
posted by:
DialM4Speed
I’m a Californian and I HATE THEM TOO! Who are these people? Who elects them? Or gives them their positions? They are evil!!!! But if we Californians have to put up with this **** then I think EVERYONE should have to be bound by it too! Misery loves company bitch!!! LOL
05/14, 10:12 PM
posted by:
Get Real
CARB like EPA is a bunch of un-elected rule makers. YES…UN-ELECTED.
And we live in a “democracy” ????
05/15, 9:33 AM
posted by:
hbcbob3
A+ points go to:
c6racer, dialM4speed, get real, and f3int
and don’t get me started on the epa. it’s because of bitches like the epa and carb that my 6.6L duramax daily driver (oh god, start crying you hippies) has a diesel particulate filter which eats away at my mileage and power when in regen mode. tell me how much sense that makes…just to burn off that “less than 15 ppm sulfur” in my fuel. i’m going to start burning off road fuel with 500 ppm sulfur just to **** with those librals…oh and soon to be removing that POS DPF