emission standards

Even as it’s releasing frequent updates on the money being spent under the hugely popular “Cash for Clunkers” program, the Obama administration is still refusing to reveal details about what cars are being scrapped and sold.
The Department of Transportation released figures Wednesday indicating that, as of yesterday morning, more than 316,000 new vehicles have been [...]

When Congress rushed to pass a $2 billion extension of the enormously popular “Cash for Clunkers” program earlier this month, there were few cheerleaders more quick than President Obama to extol the environmental virtues of the program.
“This gives consumers a break, reduces dangerous carbon pollution and our dependence on foreign oil, and strengthens the American [...]

The House last night easily passed a compromise automaker bailout negotiated for days between congressional Democrats and the White House. The Democrats — who had already given in to White House demands that the $14 billion bailout cash be pulled from a previously approved $25 billion fund for retooling Detroit’s factories — also abandoned their [...]

Tailpipe emissions are hardly the only concerns to pop up amid Washington’s debate over an automaker bailout. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) wondered yesterday why taxpayers should pump billions of dollars into Chrysler if its private owner, Cerberus, isn’t willing to do so. From Grassley’s Dec. 9 to Democratic leaders:

As Congress and the White House wrangle over the conditions of a possible Detroit bailout, many Democrats want the conditional guarantee that, in return for the cash, the Big Three will drop lawsuits against California and more than a dozen other states that want to tighten tailpipe emission standards — a provision opposed by the [...]

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) offers a new angle today on the Detroit bailout, saying that he’ll support the plan only if the automakers stop trying to kill states’ efforts to tighten emission standards.
California has famously applied for an Environmental Protection Agency waiver forcing emission reductions of 30 percent by 2016. But the automakers claim the [...]