New CAFE regulations coming down the pipe

The NHTSA will soon propose new rules that will classify trucks by
size for fuel economy regulation. Smaller trucks would be have to meet tougher fuel efficiency standards than larger
trucks. The NHTSA opted to focus on size rather than weight for classification of trucks for the new CAFE (corporate
average fuel economy) proposal. There were concerns that weight-based regulations would encourage truck makers to build
their vehicles heavier. Such a trend would become a safety issue, some sources said. While that makes sense, you could
also say that by classifying trucks by size that manufacturers would build bigger trucks. Typically, bigger means
heavier. While it makes perfect sense to further classify vehicles for the purpose of CAFE regulation, we wonder if
there is a solution that doesn’t encourage building bigger vehicles.

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