Leadership on Cleaner Cars Could Offset Mid-East Oil Imports

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: 

Tony Kreindler, 202-445-8108, tkreindler@edf.org
Sharyn Stein, 2020572-3396, sstein@edf.org

(Washington – October 1, 2010) The Obama administration today announced a blueprint for a joint policy initiative by the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation to adopt greenhouse gas reduction and efficiency standards for new passenger vehicles in model years 2017-2025.

Passenger vehicles account for about 40 percent of all U.S. oil consumption and nearly 20 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) praised today’s announcement as a great step forward for America’s economy and its environment.

“This will move us solidly in the right direction to achieve fuel savings that offset our dependence on oil imported from the Middle East, reduce harmful pollution and save Americans money at the gas pump,” said Steve Cochran, Environmental Defense Fund Vice President.

This clean car initiative would build from the foundation forged on April 1, 2010 with the adoption of the first ever national scale greenhouse gas pollution reduction and efficiency standards for model years 2012-2016, an outcome that won broad support from the nation’s automakers, the United Auto Workers, states, and conservation groups.

Today’s announcement explains the major elements of the new policy initiative, including a rigorous examination of available technologies and a range of potential progress in reducing pollution and improving efficiency (from 3 percent to 6 percent annually). The administration also announced that the new clean car standards would be proposed in the fall of 2011 and finalized in the summer of 2012.

This chart depicts the oil savings that could be secured through strong policy leadership. The underlying analysis assumes, for illustration, the pace of pollution reduction and efficiency progress in the new phase II initiative (model years 2017-2025) is a little less than 5 percent annually.

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Environmental Defense Fund (edf.org), a leading national nonprofit organization, creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems. EDF links science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships. See twitter.com/EnvDefenseFund; facebook.com/EnvDefenseFund;