Obama orders more fuel-efficient cars by 2011

President Obama's initiative Monday to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and boost fuel efficiency in new vehicles would cut costs for consumers and prod carmakers to more quickly roll out greener cars, some analysts say.

Obama ordered the Transportation Department to boost fuel-efficiency standards for 2011 model cars. He also told the Environmental Protection Agency to re-examine whether California should be granted a waiver to become the first state to impose greenhouse gas limits on new vehicles, reversing Bush administration policy. The state wants to slash emissions in new cars and light trucks an average 30% by 2016. At least a dozen other states joined the petition. Obama didn't order the EPA to grant the waiver, but it's expected to.

"It will help add to the pressure to put out cleaner vehicles of all shapes and sizes," including cars that run on natural gas and hydrogen, says David Friedman of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The auto industry says it would be hard-pressed to meet tougher mandates and argues the moves could narrow car-buying options.

The initiative "will make us less dependent on the oil that endangers our security, our economy and our planet," Obama said.

Last year, the Bush administration's EPA denied the waiver request, saying it would create a confusing patchwork of state rules. In overruling his staff's recommendation, then-EPA chief Stephen Johnson noted the 2007 energy law already mandated average fuel efficiency of 35 miles a gallon by 2020. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers says that, too, would slash CO{-2} emissions by 30%.

The California rules, however, would achieve the cuts four years earlier and then reach more dramatic reductions by 2020. "We're advocating a steeper ramp-up," says David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The stricter standards would raise car prices by up to $1,000, but consumers would save $42 to $230 a year on gasoline, the NRDC says.

But Gloria Bergquist, vice president of the auto alliance, says typical car prices would jump $3,000. She says automakers cannot boost fuel efficiency quickly enough to meet the stricter mandate.

Doniger disagrees. He says the industry could transfer existing technology to more cars.

Bergquist also urges a "national approach," saying carmakers would have to curtail sales of pickups in some states if new technology isn't ready. But Doniger says rules will likely become uniform.

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Looks like Obama isn't wasting any time. This is a very good start.

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