Notably, Toyota and Honda aren't whining about how expensive building fuel-efficient cars is, and surprise, surprise, Toyota and Honda are selling more trucks and cars than ever.
Bush to Meet With Auto Makers Over Alternative-Fuel Vehicles - WSJ.com :
Mr. Bush scheduled a White House meeting Monday with General Motors Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group CEO Tom LaSorda. ...Messrs. Wagoner, Mulally and LaSorda told a House committee this month that raising fuel economy standards by 4% a year, under a White House plan, would be expensive and challenging.
Auto makers have been resistant to swift fuel economy increases imposed by Congress
4% (in other words from 20 m.p.g. to 20.8 m.p.g.) is not much of a stretch is it? Whatever happened to American engineering ingenuity? Sounds really like Detroit is looking for government tax hand-outs.
I agree with what Tom Toles said (drew?) recently:
but
Auto makers intended to stress that they could make half of their cars and trucks capable of running on alternative fuels by 2012 if there is enough availability and distribution of E85, an ethanol blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline.“If the production and distribution of ethanol can match the volumes that we've committed to building, there's an opportunity to significantly reduce gasoline consumption within our grasp,” GM spokesman Greg Martin said.
Industry officials note that only 1,100 of the nation's 170,000 fueling stations offer E85 and have argued that the distribution system is critical to getting more vehicles running on alternatives.
this is also true, there aren't that many E85 fueling stations in Chicago for instance. Of course, if sugar tariffs were reduced.....
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