US announces new fuel economy standard for 2011
March 27, 2009
Drivers wait in traffic on 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan during the morning rush hour April 1, 2008 in New York City. The US administration Friday announced updated automobile fuel efficiency standards for new vehicles starting with the 2011 model year that aim to reduce gasoline consumption and emissions.
The US administration Friday announced updated automobile fuel efficiency standards for new vehicles starting with the 2011 model year that aim to reduce gasoline consumption and emissions.
The new rules aim at implementing a 2007 law mandating better fuel efficiency.
The new standards will raise the industry-wide combined average to 27.3 miles (43.9 kilometers) per gallon (3.8 liters), a increase of 2.0 miles per gallon over the 2010 model year average, the Transportation Department said in a statement.
The change "will save about 887 million gallons of fuel and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 8.3 million metric tonnes," the agency said.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that work on the multi-year fuel economy plan for model years after 2011 is already well underway.
The administration of president George W. Bush had proposed new standards but in January scrapped the effort, leaving the update until after the presidential transition.
On January 26, President Barack Obama directed the Transportation Department to finalize the 2011 model year standard by the end of March.
(c) 2009 AFP
Mar 30, 2006 |
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I guess you'd have to have the best of both worlds, get the old and gas guzzling cars off the road.
But then what? Does the government pay the owners of that $400 car they just took off the road? Chances are they can only afford another $400 car, which almost leads to a catch22. The only way to avoid that would be pushing old Cadillac owners into civics of equal value, but then that goes against Obama's bail out of American Auto.
What to do, what to do?
like hot-cakes!