The
Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Obama administration will unveil new auto fuel-efficiency regulations on Tuesday that raise the overall fuel economy of cars and trucks to 35 mpg by 2016, four years faster than currently scheduled. The new rules would resolve a long-running conflict between the State of California and the federal government regarding automotive emissions.
The effort would harmonize California's drive to curb greenhouse gases by reducing tailpipe emissions with the federal approach for determining miles-per-gallon targets based on vehicle size and other attributes, according to the
WSJ.
In March, the government said fuel-economy standards for all U.S. light vehicles will rise 8 percent to an average of 27.3 mpg for the 2011 model year. Under that timetable, cars will be required to travel an industry average of 30.2 miles on each gallon of fuel, up from 27.5 mpg, and light-truck standards will increase by 1 mpg, to 24.1 mpg, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said. The combined fleet average will rise by 2 mpg.
Those rules were the first fuel-economy mandates set by the Obama administration, which utilize a new system that sets standards for individual models based on their size. They stem from the December 2007 U.S. energy law that had been scheduled to lift standards 40 percent by 2020, to a fleetwide average of at least 35 mpg.