Your ex-Nincompoop In Chief's CAFE (corporate average fuel-efficiency)
standards law signed in 2007 will raise car requirements to a mere 35
miles per gallon, and not until 2020!   A typical Bush give-away to
the already failed U.S. auto industry.

"But California's tailpipe emissions rules would have effectively
required even greater fuel-efficiency increases, by seeking to cut
vehicles' greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent between 2009 and
2016, something American automakers have resisted."

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"Obama to Take Steps On Car Fuel Efficiency"

By Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, January 26, 2009; A02

President Obama plans to instruct key federal agencies today to
reexamine two policies that could force automakers to produce more
fuel-efficient cars that yield fewer greenhouse gas emissions,
according to sources who have been briefed on the announcement.

The move, which the White House has privately trumpeted to supporters
as "the first environment and energy actions taken by the president,
helping our country move toward greater energy independence," could
reverse two Bush-era decisions that have helped shape the nation's
climate policy and its auto market.

Obama will instruct the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider
whether to grant California a waiver to regulate automobile tailpipe
emissions linked to global warming, sources said, and he will order
the Transportation Department to issue guidelines that will ensure
that the nation's auto fleet reaches an average fuel efficiency of 35
miles per gallon by 2020, if not earlier.

On Dec. 19, 2007, then-EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson blocked
the efforts of California and more than a dozen other states to limit
automobiles' carbon dioxide emissions, arguing that President George
W. Bush had addressed the issue by signing a law that same day raising
the corporate average fuel-efficiency standard to 35 miles per gallon
by 2020. But California's tailpipe emissions rules would have
effectively required even greater fuel-efficiency increases, by
seeking to cut vehicles' greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent
between 2009 and 2016, something American automakers have resisted.

The Bush administration never issued near-term guidelines for tighter
fuel-efficiency standards: The Transportation Department circulated a
proposal last fall that would have required auto companies to build
new cars averaging as much as 31.8 miles per gallon by 2015, compared
with the current level of 27.5 miles per gallon, but it announced less
than two weeks before Bush left office that it would not issue formal
guidelines.

Daniel J. Weiss, who directs climate strategy at the Center for
American Progress, a liberal think tank, praised the new
administration for pressing ahead with ambitious fuel economy goals.

"President Obama's actions will reduce our oil dependence by speeding
the production of the gas-sipping cars of the future," Weiss said. "He
understands that oil and gasoline prices will rise with our recovering
economy, and more fuel-efficient cars will help families cope with
higher prices. And other countries will want to buy our more-efficient
vehicles."

Officials at General Motors and Ford said they were not aware of what
the announcement would be. The White House declined to discuss the
president's planned energy announcement.

Obama, who has consistently urged U.S. automakers to produce more fuel-
efficient cars, is likely to accelerate the timeline for raising the
nation's corporate average fuel economy for cars and trucks. The
Transportation Department guidelines must be issued by April in order
to affect the 2011 auto fleet.

Granting a waiver for California to regulate tailpipe emissions would
affect nearly half the U.S. auto market. Thirteen other states --
including Maryland -- and the District have already adopted
California's proposal, while at least four others have pledged to do
so. When the EPA rejected the waiver, Obama issued a statement saying
the decision "is yet another example of how this Administration has
put corporate interests ahead of the public interest. If the courts do
not overturn this decision, I will after I am elected president."

"Not only is the new president a man of his word, but he's making a
dramatic break with the Bush administration's climate policy," said
Frank O'Donnell, who heads the advocacy group Clean Air Watch. "It's a
powerful signal that science -- and the law -- will guide his
administration's decisions. This should prompt cheers from California
to Maine."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/25/AR2009012501687.html