Big change is about to hit the road. On Tuesday, May 19th, Obama announced new standards for fuel efficiency and emissions, which will start taking effect in 2012. The new rules will require all cars to get at least 39 mpg and trucks to get 30 mpg, which averages to 35.5 mpg (as compared to the current average of 25 mpg).
On the national end, these new standards will save the US almost 2 billion barrels of oil from 2012 through 2016. Also, the newly efficient vehicles will prevent 900 million metric tons of greenhouse gases from being emitted throughout their lifetimes, which is akin to taking 177 million cars off the road. Auto industries are happy too, because now they have a single nationwide standard that helps national security, air quality, and general public approval. Sure, this means new cars will cost more—an average of $1,300 per vehicle—but at current prices a consumer can make that money back in gas savings in about 3 years.
Obama couldn’t have said it better: “In the past, an agreement such as this would have been considered impossible. That is why this announcement is so important, for it represents not only a change in policy in Washington, but the harbinger of a change in the way business is done in Washington.”
For more information on fuel economy, visit http://www.fueleconomy.gov/.
