WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday will announce the most aggressive proposal for increasing auto fuel economy standards ever and the first plan for regulating emissions, the White House said.
The proposal would require the U.S. passenger vehicle fleet to average 35.5 miles per gallon (6.62 litres/100km) by 2016, saving 1.8 billion barrels of oil. It would also instruct the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate tailpipe emissions.
Obama is expected to unveil the proposal at a 12:15 p.m. EDT White House event to be attended by Ford CEO Alan Mulally, General Motors Corp President Fritz Henderson, Toyota Motor Sales USA President Jim Lentz and Chrysler CEO Jim Nardelli, along with United Auto Workers union President Ron Gettlefinger.
The White House statement said 10 car companies and the UAW had embraced the fuel efficiency program "because it provides certainty and predictability to 2016 and includes flexibilities that will significantly reduce the cost of compliance."
The proposal is aimed at cutting climate-warming carbon emissions, which would fall by 900 million metric tons or more than 30 percent over the life of the program, according to administration officials.
The new program, the administration said, will add about $600 to the price of producing a vehicle compared to current law, which requires automakers to achieve a fleet average of 35 mpg by 2020, a 40 percent increase over today's performance.
The Obama proposal is also supported by California, which had sought a waiver from federal environmental law to impose its own regulations to cut auto emissions but had run into a roadblock with the Bush administration.
California's move had prompted a lawsuit from auto companies fearful of a patchwork of state rules on emissions, but the nation's most populous state now intends to follow the Obama proposal as one national standard, administration officials say.
(Reporting by John Crawley; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
