Report : Obama announces national fuel-economy standard at 35.5 mpg by 2016

President Barack Obama has announced new fuel-economy regulations in an attempt to reduce greenhouse gas pollution for all new cars and trucks sold in the United States. The standards will cover model years 2012-2016 and call for an average fuel-economy standard of 35.5 mpg by 2016 - an average increase of 8 mpg per vehicle. The new regulations are projected to save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the life of the program.

"As a result of this agreement, we will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the next five years," Obama added. "And at a time of historic crisis in our auto industry, this rule provides the clear certainty that will allow these companies to plan for a future in which they are building the cars of the 21st century." President Obama also praised Ford Motor Company on their new EcoBoost engines. Ford basically went to smaller engines and boosted them up to give a lot of power.

Currently, DOT manages fuel-economy while the EPA measures emissions. Nevertheless, DOT and EPA will come together by 2016, to check all new cars that produce 35.5 mpg, and actually fuel emissions will be in a certain margin.

On the other hand, according to a senior administration official, the new program will add an extra $1,300 to the price of producing a vehicle (compared to the $700 forecasted by the Bush administration's 2007 fuel efficiency proposal) but it is expected that consumers will bank around $2,800 over the car's life from fuel-savings.

So basically as car enthusiasts, we're going to see the vanish of big naturally-aspirated engines very soon, that will be replaced by smaller but boosted engines that get the same power.

President Obama's full speech on announcing the new fuel-economy program is in the video below.

Source : [MSNBC Detnews]