May 19th, 2009 
Tushar Mathur We already knew it was coming, but now it’s official. the US fuel economy standards are being beefed up starting in 2012, ramping up by 5% a year to a fleet average (cars & trucks) of 35.5 MPG in 2016. This makes the CAFE law passed by Congress in 2007 (requiring an average fuel economy of 35 mpg in 2020) pretty much obsolete. More details below.
This should also bring a reduction of 900 million metric tons in greenhouse gas emissions (though the White House isn’t clear if this is over the 4 year period or over the lifetime of the vehicles produced during that period.
What’s particularly interesting about this regulation is that it creates a national policy. Instead of having the EPA, DOE and California all fighting with each other and passing different laws that the automakers must then try to follow, this one target should create some predictability that helps everybody.
Of course I wish they had gone even further (maybe it could keep ramping up by 5% a year after 2016?), but after years of stagnation, this is a good start.
Courtesy of TreeHugger.
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