Pew Environment Group Statement on President Obama’s New Clean Car Standards

Washington, DC - 05/19/2009 - Today, Phyllis Cuttino, Director of the Pew Environment Group’s U.S. Global Warming Campaign, released the following statement on President Obama’s national plan cutting global warming pollution from new cars and light trucks.

“The Obama Administration’s plan for the first national standard for tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions is a significant step forward in American energy and global warming policy, to the benefit of us all. This will ensure that automakers produce the fuel-efficient cars Americans demand, saving consumers’ money at the pump, reducing our dependence on oil and cutting the pollution that threatens the public’s health and our environment.

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“This ends years of dispute over who should regulate tailpipe emissions. Due to the president’s leadership, state officials, automakers and environmentalists, who have long debated these standards in the courts, now endorse a federal plan that gives industry predictability while protecting states’ rights to clean car regulation.

“America currently consumes 25% of the world’s oil, which threatens our national security and exacerbates global warming pollution. President Obama’s standard would reduce nationwide oil consumption by billions of barrels while significantly cutting global warming pollution.

“This plan will be an important part of a national comprehensive energy and global warming policy that achieves three key goals: reduces our dependence on oil, creates clean energy jobs and cuts the carbon pollution that causes global warming. But, President Obama can’t achieve these goals through regulation alone, he must work with Congress to pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation this year."

Source: Pew