U.S. President Barack Obama wants to make stricter emissions laws and increase overall MPGs for cars in America. He started by giving California and thirteen other states the rights to enact stricter emissions laws. While this may make us breathe a little easier, is this the beginning of the end for the performance car?

Power doesn't just come from burning gas but the mixture of air and fuel. The more air available in the engine, the greater the possibility of burning more fuel and creating higher performance. This unfortunately does not coincide with green-minded emissions or MPGs.

California is traditionally the hardest state on emissions, which is why most aftermarket products must be California Air Resources Board (CARB) certified to be street legal. If California gets stricter with the laws, there is a good chance that the new regulations could make some old exhaust systems noncompliant, rendering many cars in the costal state illegal.

Tuners may have to find new ways to unleash power in the constant quest for speed. The engineers at Mitsubishi->ke58 chose to replace the diamond star standard 4G63 with the new 4B11 in their EVO X because they didn’t feel that they could continue tuning the old iron block and be environmentally compliant.

President Obama is taking a major step toward addressing global warming by cleaning up the American transportation fleet. Hopefully the car companies will be able to sneak a few more modified vehicles on U.S. roads before the hammer drops.

.