Congress first adopted the standards — known as Cafe standards, for Corporate Fuel Economy Standards — in 1975, in reaction to the disruption of the 1973 oil embargo. For decades, automakers resisted changes in the standards, but joined Mr. Obama for his 2010 announcement that he was ordering the creation of a new national policy that would result in less greenhouse-gas pollution from medium- and heavy-duty trucks for the first time. It would also reduce exhaust from cars and light-duty trucks beyond the requirements he set in motion a year before
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fuel economy standards have been the primary way in which the United States has sought to control greenhouse gas emissions for cars and light trucks, which along with other parts of the transportation sector account for about one-third of the nation's carbon dioxide emissions.
Manufacturers want a single, national standard set over the long term because it is easier to meet than the patchwork quilt of regulations imposed in the past.
More broadly, as American automakers recovered from their steep losses during the recession, they appeared to be finally giving up their addiction to producing gas-guzzling trucks and sport utility vehicle . Prodded first by rising federal fuel economy standards, then shocked in 2008 by $145-a-barrel oil and a global credit crisis that forced GM and Chrysler to seek federal bailouts, Detroit began making a fundamental shift toward lighter, more fuel-conscious cars — and turning a profit doing so.
The new standards announced in July 2011 are even stricter than those set four years before — in fact, they will be the largest increase in mileage requirements since the government began regulating consumption of gasoline by cars in the 1970s. While the American carmakers, as well as their Asian rivals, once argued against even minimal increases in government fuel rules, they have acquiesced without protest to an increase to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, from the current 27 miles per gallon.
Heavy trucks will have to get 20 percent more miles per gallon by the 2018 model year under the first-ever rules for heavy vehicles announced in august 2011.
The new standards are seen by the Obama administration as critical to reducing oil consumption and cutting consumer expenses at the pump, and the White House made it clear to Detroit executives that the changes were coming and they needed to cooperate.
It is an extraordinary shift in the relationship between the companies and Washington. But a lot has happened in the last four years, notably the $80 billion federal bailout of general motor , Chrysler and scores of their suppliers, which removed any itch for a politically charged battle from the car makers.
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BY :Daoud Abdallah
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