Business Week
Hybrid Talk: Big Auto Bandies the H Word
Despite the buzz that they’ll save money and the environment, many of today’s hybrids aren’t as fuel efficient as they pretend to be.

Hybrids used to be the environmentalists’ great shining hope for combating auto pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and gas guzzling. Those were the romance days for hybrids, the first two or three years following their introduction in 2000. But the honeymoon is over. With the emergence of performance-oriented hybrids and ultra-mild hybrid systems, environmentalists now see the technology as one more example of how Big Auto has hoodwinked consumers into believing their products are as green as they can possibly get.

The big issue for the environmentalists is the so-called Pavley Law.

The regulation, which could affect as much as 30% of the U.S. market (not just California), would be phased in from 2009 to 2016. It would require the auto industry to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its new fleets by approximately 30%.

The auto industry response to the law is,

that greenhouse gas restrictions are a surrogate for fuel economy, because increasing fuel efficiency is the only effective way to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. Therefore, they claim, California is trying to regulate fuel economy standards, which only can be established at the federal level. Otherwise, they argue, manufacturers would have to produce vehicles based on two or more different emissions standards. (In fact, tailpipe emissions are already set at the state level.)

You can read the whole article here.