Fuel Economy Program

WASHINGTON (CN) - The EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are developing a federal greenhouse gas and fuel economy program for passenger cars, light-duty trucks, and medium-duty passenger vehicles, to be called the "National Program."

The National Program will implement President Obama's goal of achieving by model year 2016 a fleet average fuel efficiency of 35.5 mpg and greenhouse gas emission standards that would limit CO2 emissions to an average of 250 grams per mile.

Passenger car fleets today must attain fuel efficiency of 27.5 mpg and trucks must average 20.7 mpg. Passenger cars now emit an average of 544 grams of CO2 per mile.

Although the president's goals will improve overall fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions, automobile manufacturers will be able to use a variety of credits to reduce their fleet averages, including carrying over excess reductions in efficiency from one year to the next.

By improving the function of air conditioners, mile per gallon goals could be met without any reduction in CO2 emissions.

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