Environmental Challenges To The American Auto Industry

Environmental Challenges to the American Auto Industry

Transportation in America has always been important. The ability to move freely from one part of the country to the other via the automobile speaks directly to the American Dream. Henry Ford made the automobile a possibility for the average family by perfecting the assembly line manufacturing of the Model T. From that point on it was a must have for every American household. The need for induvial transportation has morph into something that I think would give Mr. Ford a moment of pause. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), automobile emission is one of the chief contributors to air pollution in America not to mention around the world. There are numerous

Our local and Federal governments have ignored this growing problem for decades and thus allowing this problem grow to critical mass to the point where human are in danger of fracturing the Global Eco- System. According to the Natural Resource Defense Council (www.nrdc.org) climate change represents the greatest threat of our time.

The American consumers and government have begun to wake up to the fact that our actions on an induvial and group level have an effect on our planet. During the 1980’s and 1990’s foreign car makers were able to gain a strong foothold in the United States. Their vehicle which were designed for fuel efficiency and performance a fact that forces the American car maker to re think its position on fuel economy that it has held on to going all the way back to the 1940’s. Only when the wallets of those who controlled the auto industry were affected was there a call for change. The Federal government enacted and enforced emission standards and minimum performance standards for American made vehicles. The Federal government put into law in 1975 C.A.F.E. law this is short for Corporate Average Fuel Economy. Mileage expectation for truck has goes from 12 to 13 miles per gallon in 1975 to 22-24 miles per gallon 2010. Passenger cars mileage has also in improved a great deal from 14-15- to a gallon in 1975 to 27-30 in 2010 (www.pewenviroment.org/cleanenergy). The

The Tesla line of vehicles is very impressive but still today in 2016 are still outside the budget of most families. A used Tesla can still run from 50k- 100k depending on the model and a new one can be much higher. I also was able to dig up information on a hydrogen (water) fuel cell that according to a few web-sites has the ability to run an internal combustion engine without the harmful exhaust. The designers all claim to have been forced into silence by shadow entities who have threatened their lives and lives of their families. All claim that they were silenced by big oil for fear that their discovery would topple the oil industry if the invention hit the market. I cannot speak to the truth of this situation, but I will say that for a country that went from learning to fly to flying to the moon in under 75 years. In some strange gaff of intelligence has not been able to rid itself of the planet killing effects of burning fossil fuel for transportation. Like Tesla, Hydrogen powered vehicles may have to wait a hundred plus years until they are introduced to the general