From the March 2017 issue
Lost amid the pre-election furor over Pussygate, #podestaemails, Russian hacking, and all the fake news in America?s Facebook feed was the auto industry?s greenhouse-gas report card for 2015. Issued in early November 2016, it was unsurprisingly good. Carmakers are now collectively four for four in exceeding the EPA?s de facto fuel-economy targets since they took effect for the 2012 model year. Then why, you might ask, did Auto Alliance, a trade group representing most of the automakers, fire off a letter to president-elect Trump just two days after the election, bemoaning its regulatory plight"

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Not to be confused with the similar NHTSA-administered Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program, the EPA?s greenhouse-gas emissions standards are based on the actual vehicles each company sells and incorporate incentives and credits that go beyond those available under CAFE statutes. Some carmakers prefer these more flexible rules, while others seem happier paying CAFE fines, a resolution not offered by the EPA. Regardless, no company has yet fallen out of compliance with greenhouse-gas emissions (although Volkswagen?s status is pending, based on the EPA?s ongoing Clean Air Act violation investigation). Compliance is getting tougher, though. Standards have increased by only 8 percent over the first four years but are projected to be 40 percent stricter by 2025. A temporary ­program for small carmakers that allowed some vehicles ...