Consumer Law

More Regulatory Change from the Obama Administration: Fuel Economy and Montaintop Coal Mining

By Brian Wolfman

The Obama Administration has made official its deal with the auto industry to increase average fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks. Those vehicles will have to average 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. It's estimated that these requirements will add about $1,000 to the cost of a new vehicle but save the consumer $4,000 in fuel costs over the life of the vehicle. And vehicles will burn less fuel (on a per mile basis). Take a look at this chart from the Washington Post on the predicted up-front costs and long-term savings.  Read the EPA's press release and view the agency's relevant documents.

The Administration also announced yesterday that it would sharply curtail mountaintop coal mining, the controversial practice that blasts off Appalachian mountaintops to extract coal and then dumps the debris in nearby valleys. EPA head Lisa Jackson announced the new policy through a guidance, saying that science shows that when rain filters through the debris it becomes polluted by toxins and poisons adjacent streams.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on April 02, 2010 (boomark / email).