Barack Obama

  • 54.5 MPG CAFE standard for 2025

    Yesterday, the U.S. EPA had planned to release final rules on new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations requiring automakers to achieve average fuel economies of 54.5 mpg by 2025. But continued opposition and bitter disagreements has lead the current administration to delay the ruling. “The rule is still undergoing interagency review and we expect that process to be completed soon,” Lynda Tran, a spokeswoman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told Bloomberg in an email. Originally opposed by automakers, the rules have had a tough time getting this...

  • President Obama inspects the 2011 Chevrolet Volt
    White House Played Hardball To Set 54.5-MPG Standards

    Politics is hardball, as every election season shows us. And getting very, very large and powerful auto companies to do something they really don't want to do is very, very hard. Even, that is, if you have a few useful levers, in the form of independent California regulators supported by a Supreme...

  • President Obama inspects the 2011 Chevrolet Volt
    Obama's Goal Of 1 Million Plug-Ins: 2018, Not 2015, Say Analysts

    Political opponents of President Barack Obama used to sneer, "So how's that hopey-changey stuff workin' for ya, huh?" You don't hear that so much any more, but 18 months after the first plug-in cars went on sale in the U.S., it's worth looking at a different question. Will the Obama...

  • Barack Obama
    Obama: Add Rebates On Natural-Gas Cars, Oil Is 'Fuel Of Past'

    Continuing his efforts to reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil, President Barack Obama yesterday proposed expanding tax credits now offered to buyers of plug-in cars to those who buy natural-gas vehicles as well. Given the ugly politics around electric cars and the presidential election season...

  • President Obama inspects the 2011 Chevrolet Volt
    Obama: I’ll Buy A Chevy Volt After My Presidency Ends

    Ever since Barack Obama became president in 2008, he hasn’t been given much chance to drive a car, let alone own one. But when his presidency ends, Mr. Obama knows exactly what car he wants to buy as his post-presidential ride -- a plug-in Chevrolet Volt. “Five years from now when...

  • Barack Obama
    Obama 2012 Budget Proposes Higher Tax Credit For Plug-In Cars

    Two days ago, President Barack Obama released his proposed U.S. government budget for the fiscal year starting in October. And in it, he followed through on a promise from his State of the Union address last month, by proposing to cut up to $4 billion in subsidies to the oil and gas industry. The...

  • Fiat 500 LimoPresidential By Italian Coachbuilder Castagna Milano

    Think of Presidential state cars, and you’ll probably think of the Cadillac-badged limousine the President Obama uses, a car that many of us know as The Beast. Now an Italian coach-builder has come up with its own take on the Presidential limousine, in the form of an all-electric stretch limousine based on the humble Fiat 500. Enter Castagna Milano, and its LimoPresidential, available to discerning buyers (or anyone with the money) as build-to-order vehicles. Combining two electric motors capable of reaching a top speed of 100 mph, and a battery pack large enough to carry its esteemed...

  • U.S. Capitol
    Who Hates High-Mileage Cars? Your Local Auto Dealers, That's Who

    Sometime next month, the EPA and NHTSA will release final draft rules that increase corporate average fuel economy standards to 54.5 mpg by 2025. Most--although not all--carmakers have signed off on the standards, but opposition has hardly died down. The latest group to take up the fight against...

  • Used car salesman
    Auto Dealers Lobby Against Obama's Higher Gas-Mileage Rules

    Yesterday, auto dealers met with their members of Congress to try to delay new rules that would stiffen the gas-mileage requirements for cars sold in model years 2017 to 2025. The National Auto Dealers Association made the rounds to pitch a proposal that would amend spending legislation for the...

  • Barack Obama
    Japan Follows Obama's Lead, Will Tighten Gas-Mileage Rules

    With agreement among the White House, the EPA and NHTSA, and most major automakers (though not all), the U.S. looks to be well on its way to a corporate average fuel-economy requirement of 54.5 mpg by model year 2025. That translates to 40 to 45 mpg in real-world gas mileage, but it's still a...

  • Biofuel crops (photo: Texas A&M University biofuels research alliance)
    Obama's Biofuels Announcement Encouraging, Challenges Remain

    In the middle of his much-publicized bus tour into the nation's agricultural heartland on Tuesday, President Obama announced a new initiative to kickstart the U.S. biofuel industry, which among other things would create more jobs for rural communities in the biofuel production chain. The...

  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency adminstrator Lisa Jackson and President Barack Obama
    Consumer Reports On 56.2-MPG Gas-Mileage Goal: Meh, Can Do Better

    Much debate will occur--and that's putting it politely--over the next round of gas-mileage standards, which the EPA hopes to finalize next year for 2017-2025 vehicles. Earlier this week, news reports from Washington indicated that the Obama Administration and EPA are pushing for 56.2 mpg as the...

  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency adminstrator Lisa Jackson and President Barack Obama

    The two Federal agencies that set gas mileage and emissions standards for future cars may propose rules that require corporate average fuel economy to reach 56 miles per gallon by 2025. News reports out of Washington, D.C., indicate that the Obama Administration is urging the EPA and NHTSA to push for a 5-percent improvement each year between 2017 and 2025. That translates to a 56.2-mpg fleet average in 2025. Regulators have been analyzing annual increases from 2 to 7 percent; Detroit is said to have acknowledged it could meet a 3-percent increase. 34 mpg in 2016, 62 mpg by 2025? Rules for...

  • President Obama inspects the 2011 Chevrolet Volt
    Obama Administration Buys Electric Cars, Charging Stations

    The President may be currently abroad experiencing the horror of European ramps, but his government has been busy at home ordering the very cars its stimulus program has helped to fund. The General Services Administration responsible for the upkeep of the federal government’s 600,000 strong...

  • Sample used-car window sticker showing gas mileage, for a 2000 Honda Insight
    Feds To Mandate Up To 62 MPG By 2025; What Does It Mean For You?

    Two days ago, the NHTSA said that it would require annual gas-mileage improvements of somewhere between 2 and 7 percent each year between 2017 and 2025. Corporate average fuel economy requirements have already been set through 2016, an action facilitated by the Obama Administration soon after...

  • Toyota Prius at US Capitol, by Flickr user Izik
    Federal Government Saving Gas With Higher-MPG Vehicles Too

    You may recall a few weeks back we reported on police forces all around the nation downsizing their vehicle fleets from big and brawny V-8 sedans to a new-generation of V-6 sedans and SUVs. Turns out the federal government is following suit, switching its vehicle fleet from mostly full-size cars to...

  • President Obama inspects the 2011 Chevrolet Volt
    Is Obama's Goal of 1 Million Plug-In Cars By 2015 Feasible?

    Since 2008, Barack Obama has consistently promoted the goal of having 1 million advanced technology vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015. The number refers to plug-in vehicles that use grid power, stored in lithium-ion battery packs, to operate their electric traction motors. Regular hybrids like the...

  • John Duncan takes delivery of one of the first 2011 Nissan LEAF EVs, near Portland OR, 12/15/2010
    Is One Million Electric Cars By 2015 Too Ambitious?

    In a renewed push for clean energy, President Obama called for one million electric cars to be on American roads by 2015 last month. But is that goal realistic? The government released a report this week saying that by its “conservative” estimates for 2015, the electric car supply in...

  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency adminstrator Lisa Jackson and President Barack Obama

    The budget that will be submitted to Congress on Monday by President Barack Obama contains cuts for two clean-vehicle programs: retrofits that reduce diesel emissions from heavy trucks and other commercial vehicles, and research funds for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. Whether those cuts will survive the budgeting process remains to be seen. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Diesel Program had been funded at $80 million in 2010, and it was reauthorized last December by Congress for five years at a cost of $500 million. Diesel-powered trucks, buses, and construction equipment made...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf at quick-charging station
    Obama Seeking Rebates Instead Of Tax Credits For Electric Car Buyers

    Currently, buyers of electric cars receive a $7,500 tax credit that they can only realize once they file their taxes, often up to a year after they actually make their purchase. Without a doubt, this has limited the effectiveness of the incentive so it’s not surprising to hear there are many...

  • cash
    Senator Stabenow: $7,500 Electric-Car Credit Should Be Rebate

    It's long been known that purchase rebates--buy a car, get a check--are a more effective incentive for purchase of any kind of car than an income-tax credit, which may take a year or more to affect the buyer's cash position. But the current tax credits for purchase of plug-in cars, up to $7,500 for...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt
    Congressmen Propose Lifting Number Of Vehicles Eligible For EV Tax Credits

    Hot on the heels of President Barack Obama’s pledge of support for expanding U.S. production and sales of plug-in electric cars in his State of the Union address earlier this week, comes more support for the zero emission vehicles from a pair of Michigan Democrats. Brothers Rep. Sander M...

  • Barack Obama
    Obama Sticks With 1 Million Plug-Ins by 2015, Cuts Oil Sweetheart Deals

    His party may be under increasing pressure from the Tea Party movement as it fights conservative attempts to stifle everything from healthcare reform to government spending, but President Obama is still keen to push the electric car revolution. Speaking at last night’s State of the Union...

  • Barack Obama
    Obama Doubles Down on Plug-In Cars, More Policy Tweaks Coming

    Last night, in his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama reiterated his support for expanding U.S. production and sales of plug-in cars that run on grid power. Today, according to the Detroit News, a slew of policy changes will be unveiled by Vice President Joe Biden to advance that...

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