Obama puts the screws on the US auto industry

In pursuit of pointless "emissions reductions" to "tackle climate change" of course. So an industry which is teetering on the brink of collapse anyway will be forced to meet stricter emissions limits, which in turn, will put up prices for consumers. I'm all in favour of economical use of a limited resource, but given the fact that fuel efficiency has improved so much over the past decades anyway, this is madness.

The deal was forged in secret talks over the past few weeks between the car companies, environmentalists, unions and Mr Obama.

"For the first time in history we have set in motion a national policy aimed at both increasing gas mileage and decreasing greenhouse gas pollution for all new trucks and cars sold in the United States of America," Mr Obama said.

Under the new rules, American cars and trucks will have to get 15 kilometres per litre by 2016. At the moment they average 10 kilometres per litre.

Good luck with that.

Read it here.