DOT, EPA Establish Emissions, Fuel Economy Standards for Vehicles

The Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency in April established new federal standards governing the emissions and fuel economy of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the U.S.

The new standards will represent an estimated savings to customers of around $3,000 over the life of a new vehicle purchased in 2016. New vehicles’ overall savings are estimated to total about 1.8 billion barrels of oil and nearly a billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions nationally.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood characterized the new standards as ambitious but achievable and said they would help encourage new technologies while also offering customers savings on fuel.

Since the rules were proposed in September of 2009, the two agencies have received over 130,000 public comments—overwhelmingly in support of implementing a strong national standard. The collaboration means that automakers will be able to adopt a single standard instead of worrying about divergences between agencies or from state to state.

The new standards will require that fleet-wide fuel economy be improved and greenhouse emissions be reduced by approximately five percent annually, starting with model year 2012 vehicles. If those reductions were only on the fuel economy side that would mean that the 2016 standard for fuel economy would be 35.5 miles per gallon.

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