Automakers Oppose 56-mpg Fuel Standard for 2025

Some years ago, two of the three large American car makers were starting the federal government to bail them out. Now they're buying ads and paying lobbyists to pressure the White House to withdraw light trucks and SUVs from a proposed 56 miles-per-gallon fuel standard by 2025.

“This is the same shortsighted thinking that got the U.S. automakers in trouble in 2008 when gas prices caused them to be overloaded with gas guzzling SUV inventories that just wouldn’t sell,” said Jack Gillis of the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and author of The Car Book.

CFA's research director, Mark Cooper, called the automakers'  campaign “economic suicide” and warned that it's unlikely U.S. taxpayers will bail them out again.