Did you not comprehend my post? I did state that mandates for better efficiency were dictated by congress (true, a inefficient government entity but not the EPA, as CAFE standards are set by legislation and not departmental rule making), but that the AFM thing was not required to do so. That was purely a poor idea from GM instead of taking advantage of much better technology. And it barely made a dent in meeting CAFE standards. Again, I think you must have missed my contention that the main thing that got them to meet the CAFE standards was producing a lot of little go cart cars that no one wanted. Remember, the CAFE standard is the AVERAGE of the entire OEM product line.
The Pickup line has barely budged a bit over the last 20 years regarding fuel economy. Like I stated before, the 2013 5.3L in my Siverado does not get but about 1 mpg better than the 1998 454 big block in my 2500 Chevy. Pretty sad that in 15 years, they could only tweak out 1 mpg better out of an engine that is more "advanced" and is a full 2L smaller, in a 1/2 ton pickup compared to a 3/4 ton pickup. In the final analysis, they have made no progress. The height of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
But they are starting to come around. To wit, the 3.2 V6 EBDI engine. As much HP and torque as the 6.6L Duramax diesel and better fuel economy than the diesel, and does it on E85. Has been undergoing testing in Silverado pickups by GM. So, it begs the question why they decided to take antiquated NA engine design and complicate it with no real appreciable results. Kinda reminds me of Scotty on Star Trek in one of the movie versions... "the more complicated they make the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." They wanted to add complexity, then add something like supercharging or turbocharging to get the results they needed. Ford did it with their Ecoboost V6. As much power as the 5.3L V8 GM engine, reaches the peak torque at a almost 2000 RPM lower than the 5.3L (which is really what you want with a pickup application), and easily gets better fuel economy than the 5.3L.
Oh well, the AFM is disabled on my 5.3L, and in doing so, I am not in violation of any government regulation. Again, that proves it was purely a GM thing and did not have anything to do with the EPA or anyone else. Just like their daytime running lights. Not mandated, and also disabled on my pickup. I realize my mistake in buying a GM pickup, so will not make that mistake next time.