Tough Test Emerges as Administration Aims to Bolster Automakers, Cut Pollution
(Source: Washington Post)
In the viability plans General Motors and Chrysler submitted to support their federal aid requests, the companies pledged to try to meet new fuel economy standards.
GM said that within six years its cars would average 38.6 miles per gallon. Chrysler proposed 35.4 mpg.
Yet whether those levels will be enough to meet new federal fuel efficiency standards is unknown because even as the Obama administration is trying to revive the American car industry, it is simultaneously drafting tougher fuel economy standards of the kind that many in the industry had said were bad for business.
If the administration opts for tougher rules, it could make its own auto rescue efforts more expensive and more complex.
Balancing the two goals — saving the industry and the environment — has emerged as a test of the administration’s aims. And the decisions the president’s auto task force must make in the coming weeks give it broad leverage to shape not only the industry’s finances but its product lines.
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