Light Truck and SUV Blogs

The New York Times reported today that a federal appeals court in San Francisco rejected the Bush administration’s year-old fuel economy standards for light trucks and SUV’s.

The Times says the court rejected the standards because they were not tough enough because regulators had failed to thoroughly assess the economic impact of tailpipe emissions that contribute to climate change.

The three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San francisco voided the new regulations for 2008-2011 model year vehicles and told the Transportation Department to produce new rules taking into account the value of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

It seems the courts are now looking at climate change and how current and future regulations contribute to it. As Patrick A. Parenteau, an environmental law professor at Vermont Law School told the Times, “Climate change has ushered in a whole new era of judicial review.”

Should regulators (and the courts) leave light trucks and SUVs alone? If the government were to demand ridiculously high MPG standards on trucks and SUV’s, wouldn’t we lose the utility that drives consumers to purchase them in the first place?

When it comes to mileage standards for light trucks and SUV’s, should it be government regulated or driven by consumer demand?

What are your thoughts?

Another SEMA show has come and gone. My body has recuperated (both mentally and physically) from not only the four days of SEMA, but from finishing the customization of Project Tundra in the week before the show (can you say, “crunch time?”) and ferrying the truck from Wisconsin to Vegas and back. 

SEMA was a huge success for the Light Truck and SUV team. I came away with some great editorial ideas and a lot of new product information. The debut appearance of Project Tundra created quite the buzz in the truck and SUV hall. Dean Loucks, the artist who created the custom paint job for us, says on his website, “Can you handle the attention?” Well Dean, we were quite pleased with the attention your paint job created. It was likely responsible for quite a few neck sprains and dead digital camera batteries at the show.

We would like to thank everyone who participated in our SEMA Squares contest at the show. The winners of the contest were:

• Flat-panel Plasma HDTV — John Sayler, Phaster Motorsports, Henderson, NV
• TruXedo Tonneau Cover — Stephen Buntich, Caruthers Auto Supply, La Canada, CA
• Freedom Grill — Dan Major, Tube Service Co., Phoenix, AZ
• TruckBedz truck bed mattress — Rena Garcia, Rena’s Signs, Brentwood, CA

It doesn’t seem like a whole year has passed since last year’s SEMA show. Last year was my first SEMA, and I made a few rookie mistakes. My first mistake was scheduling appointments 30 minutes apart during the show. My second mistake was wearing dress shoes at the show (even though they were well broken in). Another mistake was not getting enough rest at night (an easy mistake to make in Vegas).

Well, I did learn from my mistakes. I scheduled my meetings in one-hour intervals this year. This gave me plenty of time to make it from one meeting to the next without having to sprint from one meeting to the next. I wore my black Nike sports shoes instead of dress shoes (and my feet thanked me for it). As far as adequate rest goes, I only spent one late night (ahem, early morning) out on the town. It was Halloween night, and I couldn’t pass up spending Halloween on the strip with Dean and Mark from The Art of Design and a couple of coworkers.

Be sure to read each issue of Light Truck and SUV magazine as we bring you product news from the show and highlight our Project Tundra customization.

As far as highlights from Halloween night, all I have to say is, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”

Thanks for reading!

Joe Escobar