* DC - Senate considers expanding loan program to big trucks
-- Senators are considering expanding the long-dormant $25 billion auto retooling program to include medium- and heavy-duty trucks — or even ships... Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing and Bill Cassidy, R-La., have introduced separate proposals to expand the program that has more than $16 billion in unused loans to large truck manufacturers and suppliers to them... Stabenow’s “Building Better Trucks” act would allow the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program to make loans to big truck and engine manufacturers... At an Energy Committee hearing Tuesday, Stabenow noted that heavy trucks account for 7 percent of traffic but consumer 25 percent of the fuel... The auto retooling loan program was created by Congress in 2007 and funded in 2008. It hasn't issued a new loan in more than four years, even though it still has more than $16 billion in available low-cost government subsidized loans... The news comes as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Environmental Protection Agency are getting close to unveiling the second round of fuel efficiency standards and greenhouse gas emissions limits for medium and heavy duty trucks... The standards are required under a 2007 energy law and will boost the efficiency of bigger vehicles by up to 20 percent. They are expected to save the industry $50 billion in fuel costs, or 530 billion barrels of oil, over that time period — but will cost manufacturers $8.1 billion to build the more efficient vehicles...
(Image: Streamline Plots, by Tecplot - Computational fluid dynamics wing) -- Washington, DC, USA - The Detroit News, by David Shepardson - 8 June 2015Labels: governments stimulus funds
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