The U.S. Imposes Fuel Efficiency Standards on Cars for First Time

Barack Obama announced yesterday that governmental limits on the emission of greenhouse gases will be imposed for the first time in United States history, including restrictions on fuel consumption that manufacturers selling cars in the U.S. must adhere to by 2016.

“For the first time in history, we have set in motion a national policy aimed at both increasing gas mileage and decreasing green house gas pollution for all new trucks and cars sold in the U.S.” said Obama, surrounded by automotive industry representatives and politicians, including governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. With the clear intention of reducing pollution and oil dependence on countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Mexico or Venezuela, Obama will force automobile companies to design cars that consume 6.6 liters per 100 kilometers (35.5 miles/gallon), which would save 286,000 billion liters (75.5 billion gallons) of crude oil over seven years. The U.S, with only five percent of the world’s population, consumes 25 percent of the world’s crude oil annual production.

Obama is confident these measures will encourage the transformation of the U.S. car fleet. According to government predictions, 177 million cars will disappear from American roads in the next six and a half years. The industry estimates that these antipollution reforms will raise the price of each car by approximately 1000 Euros ($1,397), and that there will be a 30 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2016.