Clean Car Standards Will Cut Global Warming Pollution
A top Pew Environment Group official has highly praised President Barack Obama’s plan to battle global warming through reducing the greenhouse gases spewing from new cars and light trucks. Phyllis Cuttino, director of the Pew Environment Group’s U.S. Global Warming Campaign, said that the “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.”
Cuttino said the president’s plan would result in automakers producing fuel-efficient cars that consumers demand, as well as saving them money at the pump. She said the plan would also reduce U.S. dependence on oil and protect the environment and public health.
“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,” Cuttino said.
America consumes 25 percent of the world’s oil, which threatens U.S. 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,” Cuttino said.
The Pew Environment Group is the conservation arm of The Pew Charitable Trusts, a non-governmental organization that applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improving public policy, informing the public and stimulating civic life.
For more information, visit www.pewtrusts.org.