California's Emissons Rules Become National Standard

For the first time, a national standard, which calls for calls for cars and light trucks to be up to 30% cleaner by 2016

By John Mahoney Posted 05.18.2009 at 4:30 pm 3 Comments

President Obama and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Pete Souza/Official Whitehouse Photo

The Obama administration is expected to announce that California's strictest-in-the-nation gas mileage and emissions standards will now become a national standard. And surprisingly, U.S. automakers are actually happy.

The auto companies have been begging for a nation-wide standard (along with a clear timetable for improvement) for years. Now that they have one, they can unify their production and save money by not having to manufacture more efficient cars for certain states.

The plan will move quickly, ensuring that automakers' new-car offerings must hit 42 miles per gallon by 2016, with light trucks having to hit 26.2 miles per gallon.

Firm details have not been revealed, but an official announcement is expected as soon as tomorrow.

[NY Times]

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3 Comments

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Winston

05/23/09 at 12:00 am

With the climate change that is happening to the world. It is about time that the new administration will do something about it. The CAFE standards have gotten themselves an update. The CAFE standards, or Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, have been overhauled by President Obama, to drastically cut auto emissions around the U.S.A. The automobile industry might be doing less check cashing from sales of gas guzzlers, though – the new standard is for all cars (just cars, not trucks) to achieve an average of 35.5 mpg by 2016. It is currently at 27.5 mpg. That level of efficiency has already been mandated by the state of California, and the aim is to severely reduce emission of greenhouse gases. Critics point out that higher CAFE standards might save a payday cash loan at the pump, but smaller cars compromise crash safety.

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