The EPA should let States set their own fuel standards, even though this is one category that the U.S government should have one standard that has to be met. The environment should have always been the most important issue, the auto industry will survive if they adapt, and if they don't, then they don't. Other industries will come along. As a people, we need to stop holding on to the past and start learning from it, to make a better future.

Absolutely.

For four decades we have been having a dysfunctinal debate over CAFE,and now California's GHG standards. The politicians and regualtors set metrics for the car comapnies to meet that have nothing to do with the market (read consumers wants and needs). And the car companies have reacted by trying to delay, fudge etc. It is long since time to move beyond these dysfunctional debates and look at the broader systems questions to get at a holistic answer that all parties can live with.

Rather than talking about mandates, we should be working to support the car companies shift from fossil fuel powered vehicles to the electrification of the vehicle. In turn the polution question should be shifted to the electric power companies that will be providing the needed electricty. They are the more rational place that we should be regualting pollution, becsue they can more easily come up with carbon neautral sources of engergy. By the way, electric companies account for 40% of GHG, cars and trucks account for about 20%. This new paradign could put a major dent in GHG without the angst that the stupid CAFE debates have caused.

Short of that, the answer is no. Allowing every state to develop its own CAFE standards would be just a total disaster. It would mean huge, wasted, costs for the car companies (that includes the Japanese and the Germans), and it would mean many consumers could not get the vehicle they need. It is just brain dead politics.

Need common standards. Since California and the rest of the country are so far apart, perhaps an arbitrator. The auto industry would have one less hurdle as it attempts to retool and survive.

No, there should be common rules for industry to follow. But even a national CAFE is unworkable. There is plenty of evidence, especially recently, that the most effective way to reduce energy use is to directly increase the cost to the consumer. If California, or any other state, wants its citizens to use less gas, it should drastically increase its fuel tax. The politicians don't want the BEST way to address the environmental issues, they want the politically easy way.

of course they should be able to create their own standards. the BIG 3 are faltering and possibly failing. Mean while there are other small motor companies, Tesla Motors ZENN Motor..ect, who have been innovating. so what if you can't buy a Chevy, Ford or Chrysler in California. The concept of the slow and unmoving company which buys support to maintain the status quoe is doomed to failure.

If the muscle will not move let the mind do the work.