The Edsel: symbol of an indulgent Detroit. We may never see its like again. (Photo by Bill Barber/Flickr)

Is there any doubt that the Bush Administration is long gone? The Obama White House is issuing dramatic new rules regulating greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. The new standards, to go into full effect by 2016, call for cars to get 39 mpg and trucks 30 mpg — that’s a major improvement over the current, long-outdated standard (27.5 mpg for cars, 24 for trucks).

The auto industry has been meeting privately with officials from the Obama White House and Sacramento to try and reach consensus, which has now apparently been achieved. Why was California involved? Because it enacted its own tailpipe greenhouse gas law in 2002, and fought the Bush Administration (which refused to grant a necessary waiver) over its implementation.

As I reported back in January, “Sources in two environmental groups said that a private meeting will be held in Los Angeles … involving midlevel auto executives, state regulators and environmental leaders, aimed at working out a compromise in the state law (shared by 14 other states and the District of Columbia) that all parties could support. Without such a compromise, automakers, fearful that a tough greenhouse gas law would restrict them to building only small cars, could head to court.”

The carmakers, represented by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, sued California, claiming they wanted a single, federal standard on fuel economy. But this is a climate standard, isn’t it? Well, to effectively regulate greenhouse gas you have to regulate fuel economy– there’s no other practical way.

Now they’re getting a federal standard similar to the California law, and presumably they’ll accept the fact that it requires tough choices when it comes to ordering new models. The age of the SUV truly is over.

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Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc

AP - President Barack Obama’s new fuel and emission standards for cars and trucks will save billions of barrels of oil but are expected to cost consumers an extra $1,300 per vehicle by the time the plan is complete in 2016.

(Photo: Skip ODonnell / iStockPhoto)

President Obama has performed a bit of miracle work: getting California and the nation’s automakers to agree on a set of fairly aggressive new pollution and fuel efficiency rules that ratchet up the U.S. commitment to addressing global warming.

The new rules will boost fuel economy standards ahead of the schedule set by Congress in 2007, resulting in the average car in 2016 getting 35.5 mpg. The new rules also adopt California’s carbon dioxide emission limits, which had been disputed by the auto industry and the Bush Administration. The only difference is that automakers will be given more time to adopt the standards, which will apply nationwide instead of just in California and the dozen states that would have followed its lead had the Environmental Protection Agency granted it the permission it needed to adopt the rules, first set in 2004.

The move by the Obama Administration follows the EPA finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and the environment, and so can be regulated under the Clean Air Act. (See how carbon regulation may affect your next car.) But today’s rulemaking does not use the Clean Air Act to achieve an estimated 40% reduction in pollution.

It does, however, represent another example of the Obama Administration’s strong hand on the wheel of the U.S. auto industry. It would not be surprising to find that car makers had little choice but to accept this deal, given that both General Motors and Chrysler have relied on taxpayer loans to stay afloat.

In any case, it shows that Obama is being much more progressive than Congress when looking at the future of the auto industry. The cash for clunkers bill Congress is working on rewards people for buying trucks that get as little as 15 mpg.

In 2009, there were only 14 cars and SUVs that get 30 mpg or better. By 2016, the options on car lots will be much different.

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Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc

AFP - A new front in the battle against climate change will open Tuesday, when President Barack Obama unveils sweeping auto regulations described as equivalent to taking 177 million cars off the road.

AFP - Former US President Bill Clinton urged leaders of the world’s cities, which produce over two-thirds of greenhouse gas emissions, to act swiftly to save the planet for their grandchildren.

AFP - US government-supported auto giants General Motors and Chrysler have reacted positively to news President Barack Obama aims to improve vehicle fuel economy and lower greenhouse gas emissions with dramatic new standards.

It’s been a long time since there has been any movement at all in the corporate average fleet efficiencies (CAFE) for cars and trucks in America. I’ve stood by and campaigned for higher targets for years, and car companies (yes, even Toyota) kept saying it couldn’t be done (meanwhile, it was being done without trouble in other countries.)

But now someone (President Obama) is finally taking a stand and will be catching America up to the rest of the world by 2016. The current fleet fuel economy laws require companies to have an average of all their cars at a powerfully inefficient 27.5 MPG. Obama’s regulations will bump that up to 42 MPG, something only three cars in America currently beat.

This also comes with an unfortunate compromise. Light trucks (read SUVs) will only be required to bump from 24 mpg to 27 mpg by the 2016 deadline. The result could very well be a significant increase in light truck sales, as automakers avoid the technological obstacles to increasing the efficiency of larger cars by making more SUVs.

The auto industry looks as if it is actually 100% behind this new fuel-saving, greenhouse gas-reducing plan. The President of the Alliance of Auto Manufacturers had this to say:

For seven long years, there has been a debate over whether states or the federal government should regulate autos. President Obama’s announcement ends that old debate by starting a federal rulemaking to set a National Program. What’s significant about the announcement is it launches a new beginning, an era of cooperation. The President has succeeded in bringing three regulatory bodies, 15 states, a dozen automakers and many environmental groups to the table. We’re all agreeing to work together on a National Program.

The final obstacle to this legislation is that, by 2016, all major car companies will be selling electric vehicles. How CAFE legislation will treat electric and range-extended electric vehicles could have several effects. If the government creates huge loopholes for companies that create a few hundred EVs, it could significantly weaken the legislation. But if we play our cards right, this could help usher in the age of electric vehicles.

It finally looks as if we might have effective fuel efficiency legislation in this country for the first time in 30 years.

AFP - US lawmakers on Monday kicked off formal debate on legislation creating a “cap and trade” system for curbing pollution blamed for global warming amid stiff Republican opposition.

AP - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to make an initial determination within four months on whether the Pacific walrus merits additional protections under the Endangered Species Act.

AP - Urban visionaries in London and Seoul, two of the world’s busiest capital cities, foresee buses gliding through their streets with speed, ease and efficiency — without emitting the exhaust fumes that scientists say are contributing to global warming.