Obama: Cars Need to Improve Gas Mileage by 40%

The new president signs memoranda to increase car fuel economy standards and direct the EPA to review requests from states to set stricter emissions rules.

Automakers, start retooling your factories to make more fuel-efficient cars.

That was the message from President Obama, who on Monday directed the federal Department of Transportation to tighten fuel-efficiency standards.

The transportation department will devise rules to carry out a 2007 law that mandates a 40 percent improvement in gas mileage for cars and light trucks by 2020. Under the new law, cars would be required to have a fuel economy of 35 miles per gallon, up from 25 miles per gallon today.

Although former President Bush signed the 2007 law, the transportation department never got around to writing the regulations to enforce it.

Automakers will have to act quickly, because the new rules are expected to take effect starting with the 2011 models. Obama's action should come as no surprise, given he has built his economic plan on promoting renewable energy generation and other greentech businesses.

Even before Obama took office, Congress had already set aside $25 billion in loans last September for carmakers to make more fuel-efficient cars. Tesla Motors, a startup electric carmaker in San Carlos, Calif., has applied to the program (see Tesla CEO Denies Bankruptcy Rumors, Seeks $20M).

Congress also approved an additional $17.4 billion in loans to bail out General Motors and Chrysler, and the help came with stipulations that the two companies must build more fuel-efficient vehicles (see U.S. Automakers Get Federal Bailout).

Although carmakers are devoting more resources to make less polluting vehicles, they also have lobbied heavily against regulations that set higher fuel economy standards.

On Monday, Obama also signed a memo ordering the Environmental Protection Agency to review a previous decision, made under the Bush administration, to deny California and 13 other states to set tail-pipe emissions limits that would be stricter than the national ones (see Obama to Seek to Allow California, Other States, to Impose Emission Standards).

The EPA denied the waiver request from California in 2007, prompting some fighting words from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who has fashioned himself a big greentech proponent (see EPA Rejects California Vehicle-Emissions Standards).

Temporary regulations to carry out his two orders today are expected to be in place by March, so that carmakers can start working on the 2011 models to comply with the new regulations.

Comments [4]

  • gustavion lorento 01/26/09 10:43 AM

    President Obama’s stance on energy is enthralling.  I hope he continues to back up his motto of ‘change’.  I especially hope that he works to further the green sector.  I think it is particularly important for us, as consumers, to support green business.  For example, http://www.simplestop.net stops your postal junk mail and benefits the environment.  I hope the new administration supports the movement.

    Reply
  • John Bancroft 01/26/09 11:42 AM

    Well, he’s got the House in his pocket. so, taking into account some occasionally wayward lefties, it’s really about getting a dozen Repbulican senators to go along with the plan.  You can see this happening: the forgiving of Lieberman, showing respect for Susan Collins, throwing a lunch for John McCain— He needs them on board.  Executive orders are good; actual laws are better. 

    Reply
  • Christof Solar 02/10/09 5:37 PM

    I am very happy to see that American people agree with Obama on this point!

    More and more people are finally becoming aware that green energy is necessary if we want to continue to live on this planet!
    Governments are looking at renewable energy as one of the most safe and stable investment, and the sector is booming, in the West as well as in the East.
    China’s PV Industry is booming and is very likely to become the largest supplier of photovoltaic panel in the world very soon.

    Want to know what’s going on in China’s PV Industry?
    Check Euro-China Solar Promotion Association website at solarpromotion.org

    Reply
  • The Disseminating Machine 06/16/09 7:56 PM

    Barack Obama’s mileage ideas are great.
    _______________
    SCANDAL! SCANDAL! SCANDAL!

    EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY!

    George W. Bush continuously criminally stalked Margie Schoedinger to the point that she could not get away from it, and she committed suicide in desperation to escape: he murdered her.

    “In her suit, Margie Schoedinger states that George W. Bush committed sexual crimes against her, organized harassment and moral pressure on her, her family members and close relatives and friends. As Schoedinger said, she was strongly recommended to keep her mouth shut. . . . Furthermore, she alleges that George Bush ordered to show pressure on her to the point, when she commits suicide” (blog of drizzten).

    “One of those ‘very leasts’ [was] George Bush’s personal complicity in the death (murder to be precise) of my friend Margie Schoedinger in September of 2003. Determining the exact whereabouts and contacts of [then] president-elect George Bush on September 21 thru 22, 2003, should be entirely lacking in difficulty” (Leola McConnell—Nevada Progressive Democratic Candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010).

    Leola McConnell is correct: Bush applying pressure (continuously criminally stalking Margie Schoedinger) purposefully to force Schoedinger to commit suicide does in fact constitute murder where it culminated in her death.

    Bush is a racist hate criminal and hates black people (please feel free to see my “GEORGE W. BUSH IS THE WORST PRESIDENT IN U.S. HISTORY” blog). (Schoedinger was an African-American woman.)

    BEWARE: If the president of the United States hates one—for whatever reasons—he can continuously criminally stalk one to the point that one cannot get away from it, and one ultimately commits suicide in desperation to escape. He can murder people in this way.

    Bush is getting away with his murder of Schoedinger—with no sheriff, prosecutor, or court willing to uphold the rule of law.

    Bush’s method of murdering Schoedinger cannot exist in a vacuum: he must have murdered other people in the same way.

    Bush should confess, come out with the names of all of the people whom he murdered in the disgusting way he murdered Schoedinger, undergo execution, and accordingly find himself at the intersection where he would be free.

    (There are thousands of copies of the information above on the Internet. It exists very extensively in all major search engines. Please feel free to go to any major search engine, type “George W. Bush continuously criminally stalked Margie Schoedinger to the point that she could not get away from it, and she committed suicide in desperation to escape: he murdered her” or “Bush applying pressure (continuously criminally stalking Margie Schoedinger) purposefully to force Schoedinger to commit suicide does in fact constitute murder where it culminated in her death,” hit “Enter,” and find innumerable results.)
    _______________
    Andrew Wang
    (a.k.a. “THE DISSEMINATING MACHINE”)
    B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
    Messiah College, Grantham, PA
    Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993

    Reply
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