President Obama Announces New Fuel Economy Standards

The White House -- July 29, 2011 -- President Obama today announced the next phase in the Administration’s program to increase fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas pollution for all new cars and trucks sold in the United States. These new standards will cover cars and light trucks for Model Years 2017-2025, requiring performance equivalent to 54.5 mpg in 2025 while reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 163 grams per mile.

• Thanks to the standards, consumers will save an estimated $1.7 trillion dollars in real fuel costs over the life of their vehicles.
• By 2025, the standards are projected to save families an estimated $8,200 in fuel savings over the lifetime of a new vehicle, relative to the Model Year 2010 standard.

• As our cars and trucks become more fuel efficient, we will need to use less oil. Over the life of the program, the standards will save an estimated 12 billion barrels of oil – nearly four years’ worth of consumption by light-duty vehicles at current levels.
• By 2025, the standards for MY 2011-2025 will reduce oil consumption by an estimated 2.2 million barrels a day – more than we import from any country other than Canada. As the vehicle fleet turns over and older vehicles are replaced with more efficient ones, the oil savings from these standards will grow, ultimately reaching over 4 million barrels a day – nearly as much as we import from all OPEC countries combined.
• The MY 2011-2025 standards are critical to meeting President Obama’s goal of cutting oil imports by one-third by 2025, contributing over half the savings needed to meet the President’s goal.

• The standards will reduce carbon dioxide pollution by over 6 billion metric tons – equivalent to the emissions from the United States last year, or what the Amazon rainforest absorbs in three years.
• The standards will protect public health by cutting air pollutants such as air toxics, smog, and soot.