Obama orders fuel efficiency U-turn

President Obama yesterday signalled a departure from the policies of his predecessor, pushing the US government toward introducing more efficient fuel standards.

As widely trailed, the president ordered the EPA to re-open the file on the California fuel standards waiver, and also instructed the Department of Transportation to adopt legislation on fuel efficiency that had been signed into law more than a year ago.

"Congress has passed legislation to increase standards to at least 35 miles per gallon by 2020," he said, referring to corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards passed as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. " That 40 per cent increase in fuel efficiency for our cars and trucks could save more than two million barrels of oil every day – nearly the entire amount of oil that we import from the Persian Gulf."

"We cannot afford to pass the buck or push the burden onto the states," he added, criticising the previous administration for conflicting with individual states in their efforts to reduce emissions. "I am directing the Environmental Protection Agency to immediately review the denial of the California waiver request and determine the best way forward."

The EPA had previously turned down a request by California to allow it to move beyond the proposed CAFE standards and impose its own, stricter fuel-efficiency benchmarks.

The move drew praise from environmental groups, but they also pushed for him to introduce more green motoring measures.

"President Obama could go even further by fulfilling a campaign promise to put a million plug-in electric vehicles on the road," argued Greenpeace Global Warming Campaign director Steven Biel."We also urge him to raise gas mileage standards to 50 miles per gallon by 2028 and commit to cutting greenhouse emissions in the US by at least 20 to 23 per cent from current levels by 2020 – the level science says is needed to prevent the worst effects of global warming. "

Carl Levin, Democrat senator for rustbelt state Michigan, said the new EPA administrator had assured him that the California waiver review would be impartial. "I sure hope that is true, because a separate California standard will not only create the "confusing and patchwork set of standards" that president Obama today implied he wanted to avoid, but also, as the California standard is currently drafted, it is discriminatory against US-made vehicles of the same efficiency as the imports," he warned.

More than 12 states, including California, have campaigned for the waiver and vowed to adopt tighter standards if it is granted. The move would mean that almost half of the US auto market would be covered by tighter fuel-efficiency rules than the rest of the country.

The president also talked up his American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, currently before Congress, which includes provisions for weatherproofing two million American homes, making three quarters of federal buildings more energy efficient, and doubling renewable energy capacity in the US within three years.