Tomorrow, President Obama is expected to give environmentalists a major chubby with the introduction of new, ridiculously high CAFE standards. Official details will be released tomorrow in tandem with the scheduled press conference, but the whisperings currently making their way around the gossip rags newspapers are discouraging. According to the rumors, Obama’s lofty goal to cut emissions by 30% by 2016 will call for fuel-efficiency standards to see a staggering hike, surging from 27.5 mpg cars, 24 mpg trucks to 42 mpg cars, 26 mpg trucks.

Matching California’s emissions standards almost to the decimal, despite the fact that many automakers have voiced a fierce opposition to the revised initiatives, recent reports indicate that the industry as a whole will quietly acquiesce to the new, harsher rule. According to experts, despite the significant hurdle the higher standards will present, the new plan delivers to the industry exactly what they’ve been angling for: a concrete timetable and a national standard. Removing the element of chance from the equation, automakers will now be able to form a clear estimate of exactly how much they’ll owe in CAFE fines by the end of the year, and which Congressmen they’ll need to bribe beforehand.

Check back tomorrow for an update on the issue following Obama’s official address

Source: New York Times