Obama Announces New US Fuel Standards

As announced yesterday, the Obama administration has made public its new federal requirements for the automotive industry, as well as the new goals of the fight against pollution and global warming. Surrounded by representatives of the automotive industry, environmentalists, and top members of the Congress, the president said on Tuesday that the millage of vehicles would have to be increased with 30 percent by 2016, and that the amounts of carbon dioxide the country generated needed to be drastically reduced until 2020. The move has somehow gained wide support, even from automakers, which will be affected by the measure hardest.

However, considering that they were the beneficiaries of large payments – as parts of the federal bailout program – they are not really in a position to argue with the White House on the matter. In addition, as they are now running on taxpayers' money, the government can also make decisions in their leading boards. Union leaders were also present alongside President Obama when he made the announcement, which was widely applauded by environmentalists as the first major step the United States took in acknowledging the problems that global warming and climate change posed.

“This gathering is all the more extraordinary for what these diverse groups – despite disparate interests and previous disagreements – have worked together to achieve. For the first time in history, we have set in motion a national policy aimed at both increasing gas mileage and decreasing greenhouse gas pollution for all new trucks and cars. The status quo is no longer acceptable. We have done little to increase fuel efficiency of America's cars and trucks for decades,” Obama said during a ceremony held yesterday at the White House, in Washington DC.

According to predictions, the president added, the new laws would save some 1.8 billion barrels of oil “over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the next five years. And at a time of historic crisis in our auto industry, this rule provides the clear certainty that will allow these companies to plan for a future in which they are building the cars of the 21st century.” The move will also significantly reshape the kind of cars manufacturers create, and Americans drive. The legislation would increase average prices by about $1,300 at distributors, but the government stated that people would save up to $2,800 at the pump, during the lifetime of their vehicles.

“For seven long years, there has been a debate over whether states or the federal government should regulate autos. President Obama's announcement ends that old debate by starting a federal rulemaking to set a national program,” the President of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Dave McCurdy, shared in a statement. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (whose state spearheads the American effort to reduce pollution), and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm were also present at the White House, to show their support for the initiative.