San Francisco (Obama.net)-
President Barack Obama laid out a new plan on Friday that will change the way cars are made from now on. Obama is setting limits on not only pollution and the mileage of vehicles. The vehicles Obama has his eyes set on are trucks and future automobiles, including SUV’s.
While signing the new plan that will change the way America drives for years to come, Obama said, “The nation that leads in the clean energy economy will lead the global economy.” The President went on to say that his goal is for the United States to be that country.
President Obama set the deadline at a little more than twelve months for government agents to decide on new greenhouse gas emission levels as well as better levels for fuel proficiency for vehicles such as 18-wheelers and buses. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, trucks make up four percent of the cars of American roads, but take up over five times the fuel. They emit greenhouse gases and consume gas significantly more than standard cars. The mere four percent of trucks on the roads also make up for approximately twenty-one percent of all emissions.
With the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Obama is trying to accomplish something that only former President Jimmy Carter would even address in the last fifty years: the over-dependency on oil in America. Oil is consumed at a rate much higher than is beneficial to the United States’ environment. With Obama’s plan, which will be official in July 2011, every truck and bus made between 2014 and 2018 will help to decrease the damages done by the American overuse and overconsumption of oil.
To assist Obama’s efforts, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as well as the EPA, will work on limits for regular cars and SUV’s that will take effect from 2017 through 2025. That plan will replace the one made by President Obama last year, which expires in 2016. Obama’s plan called for standard cars and SUV’s to average 35.5 miles for every gallon as of 2012, a near thirty percent improvement on today’s average.
Obama has high hopes for the future. Obama said that he’s believes “it’s possible in the next 20 years for vehicles to use half the fuel and produce half the pollution that they do today.”
Furthermore, Obama is looking to implement more electric and hybrid vehicles and is planning on offering assistance to cities making them.
It is no question that in the past decade oil usage has skyrocketed and in accordance so have oil prices. With gas prices where they are and emission levels where they are, there is no doubt that halving both within a score will behoove the citizens of the United States of America, and more importantly, our children and theirs.
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