White House pressed on fuel efficiency

Environmental and other groups are pressuring the Obama administration to ramp up fuel efficiency for cars and light trucks to at least 60 miles per gallon by 2025.
 
In a letter Thursday to President Obama and other administration officials, 19 groups laid out a blueprint for proposed fuel-efficiency and carbon-reduction standards for cars, light trucks and heavier vehicles that are expected to be released in the next couple of months.
 
{mosads}They want the administration to set standards reducing oil dependence by at least 49 billion gallons annually and carbon dioxide pollution from vehicles by at least 535 million metric tons annually by 2030.
 
To reach those goals, the groups say, cars and light-duty vehicles should meet federal fuel-efficiency requirements of at least 60 miles per gallon and emit no more than 145 grams-per-mile of carbon emissions by model year 2025. They say that’s possible with existing technologies, such as hybrids and plug-in electric vehicles.
 
Further, the groups want the administration to reduce fuel consumption from long-haul trucks by at least 35 percent by model year 2017.
 
“The technology exists to boost fuel efficiency and cut tailpipe pollution for all types of vehicles,” the groups wrote. “History has shown that without strong pollution and fuel efficiency standards, U.S. automakers lag behind the competition, costing us jobs, increasing oil dependence, creating more pollution, and limiting technology innovation.”
 
The coalition — which includes the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Environment America and Greenpeace — will later lay out details of a print and online media campaign and a grassroots push. It will also launch a website.
 
“We have not had really any indication at this point where the White House and EPA is heading with this rulemaking,” Nathan Willcox, federal global warming program director at Environment America, told reporters in a conference call. “We will definitely be reaching out to both White House and EPA officials in the coming months.”
 
The Transportation Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are expected to issue a proposed standard for new cars and light trucks sold from 2017 through 2025 by the end of September, then follow up in October with first-time standards for freight and delivery trucks beginning in model year 2014.

“There’s not a need for congressional action,” noted Luke Tonachel, a clean-vehicles expert at NRDC.