6A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2009
TRANSPORTATION
Obama introduces plan to regulate automakers
Rules are expected to cost auto industry billions of dollars, but could help environment and save gas money in the future
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama wants automakers to make greener cars at a time when General Motors and Chrysler are hanging by the thread of a massive government loan and auto sales have plummeted to their lowest levels in more than two decades.
Obama's plans could bring smaller cars, more hybrids and advanced fuel-saving technologies to showrooms, but car shoppers will probably pay more upfront because the new rules are expected to cost the hamstrung industry
billions of dollars.
"The consumer needs to understand that they will see significant increases in the cost of vehicles," said Rebecca Lindland, an auto analyst for the consulting firm IHS Global Insight. Her firm estimated the unrepaired could
add $2,000 to $10,000 to the price of a vehicle.
"If the industry is in total shambles, you can have any regulation you want — it's not doable."
Obama set in motion a new regulatory process at a time when the nation is coping with an economic recession and auto sales have fallen to their lowest pace since 1982.
In December, the Bush administration signed off on $17.4 billion in loans to General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC to keep
step toward a 2007 energy law that requires the auto industry to boost efficiency by 40 percent to at least 35 miles per gallon by 2020.
Obama on Monday directed the Environmental Protection Agency to review whether California and more than a dozen states should be allowed to impose tougher auto emission standards on carmakers to fight greenhouse gas emissions.
Underscoring the hardships, GM said Monday it would slash 2,000 jobs at plants in Michigan and Ohio.
DAVID COLE Research chairman
The Bush administration had blocked the efforts by the states, which account for about half of the nation's auto sales.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The new president also said his administration would issue new fuel-efficiency requirements to cover 2011 model year vehicles. The rules would be the first
the companies afloat.
The automakers are undertaking intense efforts to restructure this spring or face potential bankruptcy.
Bertha Fuentes assembles the statue and the base of Oscar #3453 at R.S. Owens & Company Monday in Chicago. Like most Hollywoo sagas, the story of Oscar 3453 begins with the transformation of a chunk of metal alloy at a 13 1/2-inch-tall statue at the factory where the statues have been made since 1983. The Academy Awards will air at 7 p.m. FEB 22 on ABC.
David Cole,
chairman
of the Center for
more consumers. Roland Hwang, a senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, estimated that a more efficient car would save its driver $1,000 to $2,000 in fuel costs over its lifetime, offsetting some of the upfront cost.
Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., said he doesn't believe the EPA will approve all the waivers asked for by the states. To do so would be economically unworkable.
Even with the decline in gas prices from last summer's $4 per gallon, Hwang said, the regulatory programs would "push them in a direction that's going to make them more competitive, not less."
"If the industry is in total shambles, you can have any regulation you want — it's not doable," he said.
Cole said the additional regulations would have to be implemented "in a way that's achievable in the industry"
"Without California standards and without federal standards, there's a real danger of Detroit falling back in their old gas-guzzling ways," he said.
Environmental organizations said Obama's approach would help the companies in the long term, forcing them to produce fuel-efficient cars coveted by
The industry embraced a green mantle at this month's North American International Auto Show in Detroit, outlining plans to ramp up production of gaselectric hybrids, develop plug-in electric cars and bring more fuel-efficient technologies to conventional models.
Carmakers including GM, Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp, plan to sell electric cars that plug into a conventional wall outlet and let drivers bypass the gas station.
Shaping a statue
By 2013, Ford Motor Co. is bringing its "EcoBoost" line of direct-injection turbocharged engines — and their 20 percent improvement in gas mileage — to 90 percent of its models.
The regulations may also push automakers to introduce more vehicles with diesel engines, which can go more miles and provide more power with less fuel, or add technologies like those that shut off some of an engine's cylinders when full power isn't needed.
NATIONAL New bill could require pre-abortion sonograms
pre abortion sorghums TOPEKA — The abortion issue is back in the Kansas Legislature.
Rep. Lance Kinzer introduced a bill Monday that would require doctors performing abortions to give a woman the opportunity to have a sonogram before the procedure.
The bill by the Olathe Republi can also says if fetal heart monitoring is done, then the woman has a right to listen.
But Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, called the legislation unnecessary and intrusive. He said Planned Parenthood already provides that information to women.
The bill also would require clinics to give women a list of free sonogram locations, information about counseling assistance for medically challenging pregnancies and contacts for free perinatal hospice services.
SPRINGFIELD, III. — The prosecutor in the impeachment trial of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (pronounced blah-GOY'-uh-vich) says his goal is not to punish the governor.
Instead, David Ellis says the goal of impeachment is to protect citizens from someone who has "repeatedly and utterly abused the powers of his office."
Blagojevich prosector says goal is to protect public
Ellis was picked by the Illinois House to present the case in a Senate trial. Senators will decide whether to convict the governor and remove him from office.
In his opening statement Monday, Ellis said he won't try to prove Blagojevich committed a crime because it isn't a criminal trial. The question, he says, is whether Blagojevich abused his authority.
Blagojevich is refusing to take part in the trial. He says its rules are biased against him.
Paramedic charged with extortion in Travolta case
NASSAU, Bahamas — A paramedic has been charged in an alleged plot to extort $25 million from John Travolta after his teenage son suffered a seizure and died at the family's home in the Bahamas.
Magistrate Carolita Bethel says 47-year-old Tarino Lightbourne pleaded not guilty Monday to attempting to extort and conspiracy to extort from the actor. Details of the alleged scheme have still not been made public.
Prosecutor Bernard Turner is objecting to bail. He says police are looking for a "certain document" and believe they may not find it if Lightbourne is released.
Associated Press