Dealers respond to GM's call to oppose individual state emissions rules
Filed under: GM, Legislation and Policy
As mentioned, General Motors' CEO Rick Wagoner has urged his dealers to oppose states which want to set their own greenhouse gas emissions regulations, which would go above and beyond what U.S. government regulations already require. "We need to work together to educate policymakers at the state and local levels on the importance of tough but national standards," he said, adding that GM would not "be able to accomplish everything that we otherwise could," if states set regulations which were different than the rest of the country. The response from the NADA group seems to agree with the GM corporate stance. Wagoner also suggested that car dealers and automakers should work together to help create an alternative fuel infrastructure which would allow more consumers access to ethanol and, eventually, hydrogen.
These remarks were made at the 2008 National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) meeting in San Francisco. Dealers for huge automakers like GM are able to reach more local and state officials than GM is able to do itself, meaning that their lobbying efforts are very important. California has been setting their own regulations regarding fuel mileage for a while now, and it is true that meeting the state's regulations, along with those in the rest of the U.S., has been difficult at times.
[Source: The Detroit News]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-19-2008 @ 7:07PM
Silver said...
STALL STALL STALL.
That's all they EVER do these days. The Auto industry doesn't want to innovate because that would mean spending more money.
Stop stalling and start innovating. People are sick of giving half of their salaries to the Middle East.
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2-19-2008 @ 7:28PM
mike said...
GM is bitching because it's going to be harder to pervert the CA state standard then it was to get the EPA standards all F'd up. It's Dingle Time. What was that about E85 cars getting the 7X multiplier? GM, Congress and the K-Street Screw-Ups.
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2-19-2008 @ 11:22PM
gsolman6 said...
Whine, whine, whine. If the likes of Ford could start selling diesel S-Max's instead of Explorers there wouldn't be a problem with consumer demand and the subsequent bottom line. Dealer sales still might be a problem if the big three are as overpopulated with outlets as they say they are.
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2-20-2008 @ 5:28PM
Mike said...
California needs to shut the f**k up and look at the big picture for once. Automakers could waste time and money engineering and producing two systems, or they could put all those resources into one system that would be more effective nationally, if at the slight expense of California. To accomplish this, California needs to enlist the support of about 30 other states and get a national bill passed, instead of dicking around locally and wasting the EPA's time.
The government needs to work WITH the automakers for the common good, instead of saving its own image. A year's delay on emission standards could have brought a few batches of new diesel models to our shores before the extra super squeaky clean diesels arrived. Sure, they cough out a little more smoke, but they also would have helped build up the acceptance of diesels and the diesel infrastructure, both of which are going to be essential if we ever want to hit the CAFE mark of 35 mpg. In the meantime, potential diesel consumers bought inefficient gas cars instead, delaying for another seven or so years their next car purchase.
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