On May 19, at a gathering at the Rose Garden in the White House and in the presence of 10 of the world’s largest auto manufacturers, environmental advocates, as well as elected officials from all across the country, President Barack Obama announced a new fuel economy standards saying “For the first time in history, we have set in motion a national policy aimed at both increasing gas mileage and decreasing greenhouse gas pollution for all new trucks and cars sold in the United States of America.” While this has won praise domestically and around the world for being America’s first emissions cap, and however much of a step forward, if passed, the car emission rules will still lag far behind those of Europe’s. President Obama’s plan would require the average US vehicle to achieve 35.5 miles per gallon -about 15 kilometers to the liter- by 2016, a 30 percent advance over current fuel standards. Being the first time the US has regulated greenhouse gas emissions environmentalists are cheering the move. Thus Carl Pope, the executive director of the Sierra Club, one of America’s oldest and largest environmental groups, said “The speed with which the Obama administration is moving to build the clean energy economy has been breathtaking.” And yet, compared to European Union standards, those of Japan or even China, the lower level of ambition becomes apparent. China currently enforces an average fuel efficiency standard of 35.8 miles per gallon and Japan demands 42.6 mpg. Europe requires vehicles achieve 43.3 mpg and by 2016 – the deadline of the Obama’s plan- vehicles in EU bloc (27 countries in Europe) will have to meet an efficiency standard of 50 mpg, or 15 mpg more that the US.
Related posts:
