New clean car emissions standards were announced on April 1st.  The take on it from The Natural Resources Defense Council –

“The Environmental Protection Agency finalized vehicle emission standards on April 1st that will make millions of new cars, SUVs, minivans and pick-up trucks use fuel more efficiently. These standards will reduce greenhouse gases, save consumers billions at the gas pump and reduce our national reliance on foreign oil, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.”

The NRDC calls these “landmark” standards, but in order for them to be truly landmark standards they would have to have doubled the value they decided on.  Even more landmark would be to get millions of new electric cars that run off real clean renewable energy on the road.

“These federal EPA emission standards, issued in conjunction with the Department of Transportation fuel economy standards, will bring the benefits of California’s landmark clean car standards to the entire nation. The California standards, set in 2004, were adopted by 13 other states and the District of Columbia. In an historic agreement announced in the Rose Garden in May 2009, President Obama brought the states, the auto makers, labor unions, and the environmental community together to extend the benefits of those standards nationwide and end a protracted legal battle.

The Natural Resources Defense Council played a key role in passing California’s clean car legislation, developing its standards, defending them in court, and working out the clean car agreement announced last May.

Grist says this is a “big deal” and will do more to fight emissions than anything else the Obama administration has done so far. (This is not saying terribly much).  They do a great job of showing us the numbers though.  Read more here. In summary:

The numbers:

Current standards: 27.5 miles per gallon for cars and 24 mpg for light trucks
Starting in 2012, fuel efficiency will rise more than 5 percent each year
New standards for 2016:  39 mpg for cars and 30 mpg for light trucks — an overall average of about 35.5 mpg

The environmental benefits:

Will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the life of the program
Will prevent 900 million metric tons of greenhouse-gas emissions
Will be like taking 177 million of today’s cars off the road, or shutting down 194 coal-fired power plants

Back to the feel-good press release from NRDC.  We have to appreciate this as some good news anyway, given the frustrating announcement on March 31st of new offshore oil drilling.  We can’t just take a steady stream of disappointing news… like that phrase “clean coal technology” which Obama keeps repeating.  Even more good news about coal is coming up later today!  But first –

“NRDC estimates that the new standards will save consumers $65 billion at the pump in 2020 by cutting oil consumption by 1.3 million barrels [...]