The News

money.cnn.com — Plunging auto sales, high gas prices and election year politics could help convince Congress to approve a $50 billion loan package to embattled U.S. automakers that Detroit's Big Three claim is key to their future success. General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler reported monthly sales declines of at least 20 percent from a year ago, as American car buyers continued to turn away from SUVs and pickups and towards more fuel efficient car models. The Big Three are now in the process of closing truck assembly lines and rushing to catch up with hybrid and other fuel efficient offerings from Toyota and Honda. But junk bond debt ratings and thin capital cushions make such investment difficult if not impossible.

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money.cnn.com — Falling gasoline prices were not enough to revive sales of SUVs and pickups in August as major automakers all reported a sharp fall in sales once again. Sales tracker Autodata said industrywide sales fell 15.5 percent from a year ago, a bit worse than forecasts of a 14.4 percent decline from Edmunds.com. Sales were up 10 percent from July but sales are typically higher in August as automakers offer deals to clear out the previous year's models ahead of the introduction of new models in the fall. This was the weakest August for industrywide U.S. sales in 10 years and it could force automakers to offer even more attractive inducements to move the light trucks Americans are now shunning.

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reuters.com — Americans' legendary love of the open road appeared to be on the wane this summer as they confronted escalating fuel prices and a weakening economy. Demand for gasoline in the world's biggest oil consumer plummeted by 3.9 percent this summer driving season compared with a year ago, according to a report from MasterCard Advisers. The summer driving season traditionally lasts from Memorial Day in late May to Labor Day in early September.

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money.cnn.com — Home heating bills are expected to rise dramatically this winter and there is growing concern that the government program aimed at helping poor families cope with energy costs may not be able to meet the needs of cash-strapped households. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) is a federally funded program that gives money to states to help low-income households, the elderly and the disabled cope with the financial strain of high heating bills. This year, however, the program could be squeezed by a projected 20 percent average increase in heating bills nationwide and an influx of people applying for assistance due to sour economic conditions, high gas prices and a weak labor market.

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time.com — Amazon deforestation jumped 69 percent in the past 12 months — the first such increase in three years — as rising demand for soy and cattle pushes farmers and ranchers to raze trees, officials said. Some 3,088 square miles of forest were destroyed between August 2007 and August 2008 — a 69 percent increase over the 1,861 square miles felled in the previous 12 months, according to the National Institute for Space Research, or INPE, which monitors destruction of the Amazon.

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hosted.ap.org — The Environmental Protection Agency says another arm of the Bush administration may be low-balling the economic benefits of increasing fuel economy standards for cars and trucks. Echoing criticism previously voiced by Democrats and environmentalists, the EPA said in comments filed with the Transportation Department that the department would have been better off using higher estimates for future gasoline prices when it proposed increasing the average fuel economy of all vehicles to 31.6 miles per gallon by 2015. The proposed fuel economy increase was based in part on estimates that gas would range from $2.04 a gallon to $3.37 a gallon, averaging $2.42 a gallon in 2016.

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