Today, President Obama will unveil “the first-ever national emission limits for cars and trucks,” a move that Sierra Club President Carl Pope says is “one of the most significant efforts undertaken by any president, ever, to end our addiction to oil and seriously slash our global warming emissions.” Daniel Becker of the Safe Climate Campaign calls it “single biggest step the American government has ever taken to cut greenhouse-gas emissions.” The Obama administration will also raise fuel efficiency targets so that by 2016, cars and light trucks will have an average mile requirement of 35.5 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2016. For 2009 model cars, the average fuel efficiency is 25 mpg. “The projected oil savings of this program over the life of this program is 1.8 billion barrels of oil,” announced a senior administration official on a conference call with reporters last night. “The program is also projected to achieve reductions of 900 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions under the life of the program. That is equivalent to taking 177 million cars off the road or shutting down 194 coal plants.” Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Daniel J. Weiss called today’s announcement a “triple play” because it will “help move America off foreign oil, save families money, and spur American businesses to take the lead in developing the job-creating, clean-energy technologies of the future.”

From: thingprogress.org