You would expect the car industry to be a bit put out by the EU Environment committee vote last week. ACEA, voice of the European car lobby, has resorted to good old foot stamping.

"They clearly do not care about the competitiveness and job creation of the European car industry. But this is just one step in the procedure. It is not the end of the story."

Oh, the job loss argument. That old thing. But does it hold any weight?

Well, with big car sales in Europe down, perhaps people are less interested in the old gas guzzling motors that the industry is so keen to keep on churning out, and more interested in the low emission models. Not exactly rocket science but does the car industry get it? I'm not sure they do.

So let's help them out. Take Spain for example, where a recent rise in top end and 4x4 cars has been dramatically reversed. In the first 6 months of this year there was a 40% decrease in big cars but a 30% increase in small car sales.

Hello? Anyone out there? ACEA - the market is trying to say something. I really think you should be listening.

So let's put it more simply and maybe they'll understand. In France, trade unionists, road safety experts, consumers and environmentalists have come out and said 'au contraire', producing low CO2 emission cars "can create many new jobs". That's just about everyone telling the industry to clean up its act and it will sell more cars.

But will they listen?

Meanwhile President of Germany's own national car lobby VDA, Matthias Wissmann is saying "A regulation without a phasing-in period, as is customary everywhere else, is unfair." This would "in combination with excessive penalties, take away financial means that will be sorely lacking for research and development."

More foot stamping and complaints that it's just not fair. But don't worry, I have a solution for them, and it's simple: Don't break the rules and you can save a whole heap of penalties that you can plough into R&D.

And I know I keep saying this, but the car industry is trotting out the same old arguments, so all I can do is give the same reply - Greenpeace has proved that the technology is already there to produce cars that will meet the new targets.

If you want more here's a clip from the BBC about it.

And finally, the Bavarian prime minister Guenther Beckstein has said that “the introduction of strict CO2 limits for the whole new car fleet as early as 2012 is not acceptable. We need an appropriate phasing-in period.”

“The anti-industry decision by the committee endangers thousands of jobs with German and Bavarian premium producers (and) must be corrected.”

I'm not sure he's been listening to what the people want either. Apparently, he's just lost his seat in the Bavarian state elections.