Senate panel approves fuel efficiency program

Coming as no surprise to anyone, Republican enablers and Big Auto is crying about the push to become both competitive and environmentally friendly. Apparently Big Auto and the GOP managed to overlook the tens of thousands of lost jobs due to massive corporate failure, incompetence and smear campaigns, so that card has already been played. What other industry can fail to improve efficiency despite technology advancements that are obviously working elsewhere in the world?

The US offers two cars (Prius and Civic hybrid) with average mileage of 40mpg whereas Europe offers 113. The European market has been able to offer fuel efficiency, so why not in America? Why does Big Auto hate America?