Fuel Rules: Team Obama Details New Mileage Standards

[SpartanDem]

Source: WSJ

The Obama administration has unveiled the 684-page rule for new, tougher fuel economy standards for U.S. vehicles, something President Obama promised back in May.

The new double-barreled standard—one from the Environmental Protection Agency, and one from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration—make official the administration’s goal of accelerating the improvement of the fuel economy of U.S. cars and trucks.

Now, the new rules aren’t quite what’s being trumpeted in headlines and celebrated by environmental groups—corporate average fuel economy of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.

The EPA set out to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicles; their new rule equates to 35.5 mpg. But the actual fuel-economy standards are set by the Transportation Department. And since carmakers can actually decrease the emissions of their vehicles by tweaking the air conditioners—rather than improving the engines—the government’s new fuel-economy rule is a hair less ambitious.

That is, the NHTSA says the new fuel-economy rules will be 34.1 miles per gallon in 2016; that breaks down to 38 mpg for passenger cars and 23.8 mpg for light trucks. Of course, not all carmakers fully comply. That means that the real-life fuel economy of new cars and trucks in the U.S. fleet in 2016 will be about 32.7 miles per gallon, the NHTSA says


Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/09/15/fuel-rules-team-obama-details-new-mileage-standards/