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Following up on a campaign promise, Mr. Obama instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to reassess if states can set their own fuel efficiency rules, giving them the freedom to enact tougher standards than the federal government. California made a similar request in 2007, but it was denied by the Bush administration.
Mr. Obama also ordered the Department of Transportation to adopt new fuel efficiency rules that would make the average American car travel 35 miles per gallon of gasoline by 2011.
One of Mr. Obama’s key campaign pledges was to help fight global warming and create new green, or environmentally friendly, jobs by developing a new energy policy, including making changes to the country’s fuel efficiency rules for cars.
Changing Bush Policy
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President George W. Bush's administration refused to allow California to adopt its own fuel efficiency standards. |
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When a car is more fuel efficient, that means it uses less gasoline to travel the same distance.
In 2007, the Bush administration's EPA director, Stephen Johnson, denied California's request to adopt tougher fuel efficiency standards than the federal government requires.
The proposed California restrictions would have forced automakers to cut emissions by 30 percent in new cars and light trucks by 2016.
That decision pleased the auto industry, but environmental groups and Democrats said the Bush administration was motivated by politics rather than science, according to the Associated Press.
“Increasing fuel efficiency in our cars and trucks is one of the most important steps that we can take to break our cycle of dependence on foreign oil,” Mr. Obama said. “It will also help spark the innovation needed to ensure that our auto industry keeps pace with competitors around the world.”
Mary Nichols, head of California's Air Resources Board, told the New York Times: "Assuming that it is favorable to our request, we're delighted that the president is acting so quickly to reverse one of the worst decisions by the Bush administration and to get the EPA back on track."
States Get More Power
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Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should soon have more power to regulate the efficiency of automobiles in California.
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If approved, all states could set stricter fuel efficiency levels, and more than a dozen states, including Massachusetts have said they would adopt California's proposed restrictions.
Ian Bowles, Secretary of Energy and the Environment for the state of Massachusetts, said Mr. Obama’s decision will give car shoppers in Massachusetts more options for fuel-efficient vehicles.
"We think it will create new clean energy jobs in the United States and overall give our consumers greater choices,” Bowles told the NewsHour. “We think this will help get back the United States in a leadership position on innovation in the automobiles.”
The EPA is expected to move quickly to carry out Obama's instructions. At her confirmation hearing, incoming EPA director Lisa P. Jackson said that she would review California's application to adopt stricter rules.
Carmakers Uneasy
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Car industry representatives worry that new fuel efficiency standards will force cars to be smaller and more expensive. |
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Carmakers and their allies are already uneasy about the decision, citing confusion in trying to follow different standards in different states and the fact that the rules could make American cars more expensive.
“What we're asking for is clarity, simplicity, making sure that we don't have different structures, different timelines, and different compliance requirements,” said Dave McCurdy, president and CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.
While technology for making cars more fuel efficient exists, it isn’t widely available in American cars because of how expensive it is, according to Mike Dushane of Caranddriver.com.
“The fact of the matter is, they are still very expensive. This is not for lack of effort that we don't have the availability of these high-fuel-efficiency vehicles. It's because of cost, and it's because of lack of demand for these very small vehicles,” he told the NewsHour.
According to Dushane, forcing car companies to make more fuel efficient vehicles will make them smaller, less powerful, less safe and more expensive for people who live in the states with tougher standards.
For their part, state leaders say they're not pushing for tougher fuel standards as a way to punish the already cash-strapped U.S. auto industry.
"This has absolutely nothing to do in punishing the automakers," California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday. "As a matter of fact, what we want to do is just give them a little push to be innovative and to develop new techniques that will ultimately make better cars that will be more competitive around the world." |
Joplin was able to rise from the ashes because of help from everyone. And I am eternally grateful to anyone who made that possible.
