A Trump Rollback Of EPA Requirements Could Come At A Price

It is a double edged sword economically. (taking the environment out of the picture)

Higher mileage standards lessens the over all consumer expenditure on fuel.

These savings will be more than offset by more expensive vehicles that meet the requirements.

This addition cost will be compounded by higher insurance premiums to cover the more expensive vehicle.

Economically were are spending more and more and getting less in return with each cycle of improvement.

Agent009: All logical projections, based on the assumption that the future is merely a more intense or a more refined version of today.

Fortunately, history shows us that homo sapiens is pretty damned crafty. Just when we were being told that silicon-based CPUs were reaching their practical upper limits for clock cycles, some crafty devils came up with multi-core and multi-threaded CPUs. Just when folks were telling us that hard disks were reaching their upper capacity limits, some clever folks created solid-state drives that are faster, and eventually became more reliable than spinning rust... and they might eventually become cheaper... and HDDs have surprised us in their increased speeds and capacities (8TB are now common, with 10TB HDDs in server farms today!)

As long as it's perfectly fine to maintain the status quo, as long as there is an incentive to maintain the status quo, we will see little advancement. I believe that the smart car manufacturers will come up with stuff that'll surprise us, such as an affordable carbon-fiber equivalent, pure electric drive, long-range quick-recharge batteries, and possibly even home (decentralized) power generation that makes it a no-brainer to get off the grid and power the car for "free."[1]

I am confident that the future will not be "today + 1" or "today x 10". There will be significant, transformational changes between now and then. Meanwhile, let the dinosaurs debate about whether to make more efficient ICE or not.

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[1] I do not assert that these things are "just around the corner," near-term deliverables.

009 You nailed it. The fascist socialists on here were rather amusing in their responses.

Wow Trump's supporters just keep on proving him right, no matter what idiotic move this Orange Pig comes up with, his followers follow him to the edge of the cliff and happily jump off if he says it's a "fake cliff".

This guy is setting up the American Auto Industry for their biggest failure yet, on top of him touting jobs that were already "saved" he now wants to rollback requirements and cut standards that forced our Auto Makers to compete better innovation and efficiency wise with rivals from across the pond???

So now we will be left with more expensive and less innovative vehicles and watch GM and Ford fall right back into a vulnerable state because this reality star thought throwing money at Defense was a better idea.

Thanks Trump...for "Making America Dumb Again" These Republitards are ridiculous

While requiring emission, crash, and mileage standards may have advanced the bar a little quicker - one must not forget that PROGRESS happens whether you like it or not because of competition in the marketplace. Instead of having all the larger manufacturers Advertising their ability to be cleaner - get better mileage - and sustain crash damage and survive - you simply required this of all cars. And these advances would have happened anyway.

I really do not believe reducing emission regulation in the Federal regulations is going to do much - since California and the 12-13 states that follow its regulations are not going to allow more emissions - and I highly doubt that manufacturers are going to produce separate lines for two different emission levels - when you consider the population of those 13 states.

Note - Global warming indeed has happened - and the melting of the polar ice caps and the resulting rise in sea levels is REAL - it is NOT in question. WE even know what caused it - the rise of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. So - even if this rise was partially caused by some natural event - we do know that car emissions add to the problem - and controlling them is in the interest of this who do not want to live under water.

@Tom Then again, I think we are heading for a showdown between states that make laws that contradict federal law.

Need to focus on reducing the use of low efficiency vehicles for commuting or forcing them out of the market.

No problem dropping MPG requirements, just keep squeezing on the stuff coming out the tailpipe, I don't car if a car gets 1MPG as long as it is clean. I read recently that some firm may have come up with a replaceable device that is put into the exhaust pipe and cleans up well over 99% of CO2 and all other pollutants. Will see if I can find that article again...

Global warming isn't real.

@Valhallakey: a simple calculation below will prove that will not work for automobile.

Each gallon of gasoline weights about 6.3 lbs and has roughly 5.3 lbs of carbon (2.4kg). Assuming combustion efficiency is 100% and only CO2 and water are produced. Each pound of carbon burned will produce 3.67 lbs of CO2 (atomic weight for C is 12, 16 for Oxygen) so each gallon of gasoline produces 19.4 lbs of CO2.

If there is a CO2 sequester on board that can capture 100% CO2 and keep it in solid form, you will end up with an extra 260 lbs for each 20 gallons of gas burned (start with 126 lbs of liquid gasoline, end with 388 lbs of solid CO2).

Unfortunately, there is currently no such technology that can capture CO2 at a rate that can counter a tiny fraction of the CO2 produced by human activities. Rising sea level, coral bleaching and ocean acidification are some of the direct consequence of global warming, not to mention changes in climate patterns and their regional complications (such as smog persistence in China during winter although smog is caused by other sources of pollution).

Catastrophic evidence of global warming are abound, it's very disturbing that many people, especially in the US, still deny it. Perhaps it's the color of money that blinds their conscience, or the consequence of their inhaling too much of the car exhaust stuff.

Global warming isn't real. And the earth is flat. Really. Ask Shaq.

Interesting Henry, thank you for the education!!!! I have certainly not dug that deep into it, just remembered reading something about this late one night. I could not find the original article I read, searching for auto emissions devices, breakthrough etc...gets a zillion hits. I did find this that sounds somewhat similar, although the one I read had something to do with light I think...it was maybe 6 months back and was one of those late nights skimming through stuff. 100% for ensuring what comes out the tailpipe is not contributing to our environmental crisis, seems with current technology electric cars are the primary option, assuming the electricity is produced in a way that does not involve CO2 emmisiions. Let's see technology moves on...

http://www.seeker.com/an-exhaust-pipe-device-turns-air-pollution-into-printing-ink-2245514002.html

@Valhallakey: the article you mentioned refers to an apparatus that captures the black sooth coming out of the tailpipe of older cars (ones without the modern catalyst converter). The black stuff is unburned carbon particulate that causes smog and untold number of health and environmental problems. It's different from the CO2 in discussion.

Speaking of the black sooth, it's disgusting to know that in the US quite a few morons intentionally do the "rolling coal" with their diesel truck. I once saw it on the highway and it was not a pretty sight. How they can get away with this is beyond me.

CO2 sequestration is a far more complicated process - one which needs the help of nature (photosynthesis from plants/algae, micro-organism, ...) and is very slow and takes a lot of energy (yeah, conservation of energy is a bitch)

Nature took millions of year to capture and store the sun's energy in the form of carbon. Human took a hundred years to release it back into the atmosphere. It will take a lot longer to recapture the extra CO2 since human is nowhere near as sophisticated as nature at the moment. While waiting for more effective means to reverse the atmospheric CO2 concentration, we can do our part in reducing the fossil fuel consumption - with or without the help from the government.

The funny thing is, when you talk conservation, you will get a "liberal" label from the so-called "conservatives". I want to see them walk the talk for a change.

Agree Henry and that was not the correct article as I mentioned, as I am fairly certain that the one I read talked about breaking the CO2 down with light or lasers or... maybe that would take more energy to do that than is produced by the engine in any case thanx for your reply, very informative.

Sure Matt, biggest conspiracy of all time. I believe the Republican Party is the only major political party in the world that denies the reality of global warming caused by human activity and quite frankly they seem to be anti science in general. Just curious,how would your ideal government make decisions that require scientific input? Like what is safe water, or air or any decisions that require scientific expertise? No bashing, just looking to understand your view.

Moonbats are so easy to trigger.

Strange how about 25% of the US population has the truth on this global warming hoax while the rest of the world has been totally hoodwinked by wonky climate scientist. Amazing, this small group of people looked at the scientific evidence, analyzed it with their deep knowledge of climate science and found it rubbish! Truly amazing...

MDarringer wrote "...Moonbats are so easy to trigger..."

While I would not resort to name-calling, it does appear to me that certain elements of our population do come across as being anything but loving, compassionate, empathetic, or even intelligent people. It takes mere disagreement with their opinions to trigger them to spew venomous vitriol, and to descend to personal attacks. On this, we agree.

I don't think we will be able to turn "Global Warming" around even if every car manufacturer produced only electric cars and every industry stopped polluting. So whether standards are rolled back or not we are too late in the game. I'm a firm believer in Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. They tout Mars Colonies and Space Colonies(O-Neal Sphere's). I think that's where we are headed.