Obama Raising the Bar on Fuel Efficiency - 1/29/09

President Obama plans to take another look at two policies that would force automakers to build more fuel efficient cars yielding fewer emissions.

The White House has announced that one of the first environmental and energy actions that will be taken by the president will reverse two Bush decisions.  This will help move the country toward greater energy independence and help shape the nation’s climate policy.

President Obama plans to instruct the EPA on whether to grant California and over a dozen other states to limit auto carbon emissions linked to global warming.  Obama will also order the Transportation Department to establish guidelines that all automobiles reach an average fuel efficiency of 35 MPG by 2020 if not sooner.

In Dec of 2007 the EPA blocked efforts of California and over a dozen other states to limit auto carbon dioxide emissions.  Their reason was that President Bush had addressed the issue by signing into law that the average fuel efficiency standard should be raised to 25 MPG by 2020.  The blocked legislation led by California would have required greater fuel efficiency increases cutting emissions by 30 percent between 2009 and 2016.  This was something resisted by the American automakers.

President Obama has pushed for American automakers to produce more fuel efficient cars and is likely to raise the bar by accelerating the timeline for raising the nation’s average fuel economy. 

Granting a waiver for California to regulate tailpipe emissions would lead thirteen other states to adopt the same legislation in their states.  This would affect almost half of the U.S. auto market. 

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