Digital News Report – Cars and Light trucks will have new federal rules for manufacturers to achieve better fuel economy and for the first time ever will have to meet greenhouse gas emission standards. The US Department of Transportation estimate that it could save 1.8 billion barrels of oil and a car manufactured in 2016 could save $3,000 over its lifetime.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had received 130,000 public comments pertaining to the proposed new rules back in September of 2009.
The changes will start in 2012 and will go through 2016 for the new rules. It will require automakers to improve fleet-wide fuel economy and reduce fleet-wide greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 5 percent each and every year. By 2016 the DOT estimates that cars will average 34.1 mpg. The EPA estimates that reducing greenhouse gases to 250 grams of carbon dioxide per mile by 2016 would be the equivalent of 35.5 mpg if the reductions for the gases came from fuel economy improvements.
These new rules would be the equivalent of taking 50 million cars and light trucks off the road by the year 2030.
This is the first national standards that have been put in place that relate to climate change with reducing carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
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