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US Preps 2017 Fuel and Emissions Standard

With the ink on the newly approved fuel consumption and emission standards still wet, President Barack Obama has reportedly asked the government to begin preparing fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions standards to be applied for model year 2017 and beyond cars and trucks.

According to MSNBC, the new plan will be revealed soon, together with a US-first: standards for heavy work trucks, to be applied to model year 2014 vehicles. In April this year, the first-ever national greenhouse gas emissions standards and the new fuel economy standards for all new passenger cars and light trucks has been approved.

According to the new regulations, all automakers are required to improve fleet-wide fuel economy and reduce fleet-wide greenhouse gas emissions by approximately five percent every year, starting with 2012. By 2016, all vehicles should have a fuel economy rating of 35.5 mpg and average vehicle emission level of 250 grams of carbon dioxide per mile.

The measures already approved will reportedly save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles. This means net savings of $3,000 over the lifetime of the vehicle and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by about 960 million metric tons.

The introduction of such regulations for heavy work trucks has been saluted by environmental groups, who estimate improving fuel economy by 3.7 miles would mean 11 billion gallons of oil saved by 2030.

"Improving the gas mileage of these vehicles not only would provide opportunity for economic growth and job creation, but would strengthen our energy security and reduce global warming emissions as well," Don Anair, analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists told the source.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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