NYT,pg1: Politics Forcing Detroit to Back New Fuel Rules

[DeepModem Mom]

Politics Forcing Detroit to Back New Fuel Rules
By MICHELINE MAYNARD
Published: June 20, 2007

WASHINGTON, June 19 — For a quarter-century, American automakers and their allies argued that any legislation to increase fuel economy standards would rob them of profits, force them to lay off workers and deprive consumers of the vehicles they wanted to buy.

Even as recently as last weekend, a lobbying group financed by auto companies was still running radio ads in 11 states, raising the prospect that soccer moms might lose the opportunity to buy big sport utility vehicles if they did not urge Congress to reject legislation calling for higher mileage....

But this week, with a vote possible in the Senate on an energy plan, Detroit blinked, and the car companies retreated from their longstanding argument. They are now lobbying for a modest increase in mileage standards, a position already adopted by Toyota, in the hopes of silencing calls for even tougher targets.

Auto executives say they changed strategy partly because longtime backers in Washington, who helped them defeat previous pushes to raise fuel economy standards, made it clear that the political climate had changed. If they did not back a proposal they could live with, lawmakers told the automakers, they might face even more stringent regulations.

Consumers played a role, too, since they are no longer clamoring for those S.U.V.’s and trucks that Detroit had suggested they could not give up....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/20/automobiles/20auto.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin

[Stargazer99]

1. Has the worm turned?

This should have been done 20 years ago. Capitalism doesn't always work like we've been brain-washed to believe. And this is just one example.