Obama to Issue New Truck Mileage Rules to Cut Gas Emissions

[Geee]

The Hill:

Obama to issue new truck mileage rules to cut gas emissions
By Ben Geman - 05/21/10 07:32 AM ET

President Barack Obama will announce plans Friday to improve car and truck mileage and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Obama is slated to issue a directive that expands vehicle mileage rules to include big trucks for the first time beginning in model year 2014. The president is expected to offer comments on the announcement later this morning.

The directive will also require continued mileage improvements in cars and light-duty trucks after model year 2016, when the current efficiency and greenhouse gas rules end.

The effort also includes new support for the development of electric vehicles, an administration official said.

Friday’s announcement gives the White House a chance to reclaim the political narrative on energy at a time when the administration is under fire over its plans to exand offshore oil-and-gas drilling.

The drilling plans announced in late March face fresh attacks daily from environmentalists and some Democrats in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill – a disaster that has also put the administration on the defensive over its oversight of drilling operations.
White House officials often tout the administration’s vehicle mileage rules as a centerpiece of its energy strategy, claiming that efficiency and emissions requirements for model years 2012-2016 completed several weeks ago will eventually save 1.8 billion barrels of oil.
The 2012-2016 standards were finalized earlier this year under a first-time joint rulemaking between the Transportation Department (DOT) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that addressed both efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions.

“The president is directing EPA and DOT to create a first-ever national policy to increase fuel efficiency and decrease greenhouse gas pollution from medium- and heavy-duty trucks for model years 2014-2018, and an extension of the national program for cars and light-duty trucks to model year 2017 and beyond,” the administration official said.

“The president’s directive includes support for the development of advanced vehicle infrastructure, especially electric vehicles. It also directs EPA to reduce non-greenhouse-gas pollutants from motor vehicles,” the official added.

The plan to set mileage rules beyond the current 2012-2016 program is aimed at ensuring “certainty and predictability” in the market, which should help spur development of various advanced vehicle technologies, the official said.

The 2012-2016 rules that DOT and EPA issued several weeks ago boost Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards and set first-time carbon emissions requirements that, taken together, create a standard equivalent to 35.5 mpg in 2016.

[Argyle58]

The primary way that CAFE standards are met is by using less durable materials in construction to save weight.

 

More lives will be sacrificed in the name of Global Warming, the all powerful deity of the looney left.

[Pepper]

Obama, he "da man"!

 

Just announce the standards, you go guy.

 

Everyday my truck is parked I get 18 miles per gallon by not driving in loonie credits. Monday, my mileage should have zero impact on the carbon scam.