auto industry

From the just-released statement out of the Department of Transportation:
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Thursday that after a wildly successful run, the cash for clunkers program will come to a close on Monday, August 24th at 8 p.m. EDT.

The Wall Street Journal has a piece today called “Cash for Clunkers: An Expensive Environmental Fix,” which argues that despite its bigger-than-expected environmental benefits, the soon-to-be-renewed vehicle upgrade program is a costly way to cut carbon emissions. The author writes that the effective price per ton of carbon emissions reduced is between $160 and $475 [...]

This week, the Senate will likely begin debate on its version of a cash-for-clunkers bill, according to CNNMoney. This legislation began with green intentions — replacing gas-guzzlers with more efficient vehicles — but if you needed any more evidence it’s become little more than a handout to the auto industry, look no further than the [...]

The event that’s bringing Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-Mich.) to the White House tomorrow might be the announcement of new CAFE standards. It’s a marquee event, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.) is en route, even though tomorrow is election day for a series of Arnold-backed California ballot initiatives.

The Democratic leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee just released the details of a compromise on the renewable electricity standard in the Waxman-Markey energy and climate bill. The original draft bill called for 25 percent of the country’s electricity to come from renewable sources like solar and wind power by 2025. Under the [...]

The push to retool Detroit as a center of green manufacturing got a small but significant boost today with the announcement of a new wind turbine plant that will initially create 250 jobs.
The Detroit News reports that Global Wind Systems will open the facility in Novi, Mich., about thirty miles outside of Detroit, and will [...]

President Obama just announced that the General Services Administration will purchase 17,600 new fuel-efficient government vehicles by June 1, using funds from the stimulus package. All purchases will be made from Ford, General Motors and Chrysler in an attempt to revive the American auto industry.
Yet the environmental goals of the program are quite modest. Although [...]

President Obama is pushing a compromise cash-for-clunkers program that will bridge the gap between two competing bills and provide a sliding incentives scale, whereby drivers will receive a cash voucher for trading in their old cars for more fuel-efficient ones — the greater the increase in efficiency, the more valuable the voucher.
Yet the plan has [...]

A cash-for-clunkers scheme, which would provide financial incentives for drivers to trade in their old gas-guzzlers for new fuel-efficient cars, has gained momentum, with two competing bills in Congress. An editorial The New York Times today argued, with good reason, that one of these bills is vastly preferable to the other.
The measure supported by The [...]

The administration is taking a bifurcated approach toward resuscitating the American auto industry, simultaneously allocating $5 billion to the auto parts manufacturers who are propping up an anachronistic Detroit and releasing nearly half that amount for investments in electric technology that could bring the industry into the twenty-first century.
Shortly after the Treasury announced the auto [...]