Obama on Auto Efficiency Standards

Obama has concrete plans to make America's cars more fuel efficient. Topping his list is a maor increase in CAFE standards, doubling them within 18 years. (We're at 27.5 mpg right now.)

In a May speech he got tough with the Detroit Big Three to clean up their act. To lure them into making the shift, he has plans to offer them incentives. The Health Care for Hybrids Act will give them federal financial assistance to cover ten percent of their annual legacy health care costs through 2017. And he'll give generous tax incentives to retool their assembling plants to produce advanced, cleaner parts.

Assuming the auto industry (and Rep. Dingell) get on board (big assumption), the cleaner cars will need cleaner fuel. So he introduced a federal low-carbon fuel standard into the senate in May 2007 that resembles the one California enacted in January 2007. The country's never seen this kind of national standard. Obama's would reduce fossil carbon in fuels by five percent in 2015; ten percent in 2020; and expand E85 and biodiesel.

Lots of promise here.