Graphic: end of the gas guzzler

President Obama put Americans on notice yesterday that their love affair with gas-guzzling cars must end, by announcing dramatic new standards on emissions and fuel efficiency.

Mr Obama set out the first nationwide rules for exhaust emissions and fuel efficiency that together amounted to a bold move to wean America off foreign oil and the biggest step the US Government has yet taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Mr Obama announced a plan that will compel the automobile industry to scrap scores of iconic vehicle brands and make hybrid cars and light trucks that will be 40 per cent cleaner and more fuel efficient by 2016. The President said that the move was equivalent to taking 177 million cars off the road within seven years, equal to shutting 194 coal-fired power stations and saving 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles.

To put that in context, he said, it was more oil than the US imported last year from Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Libya and Venezuela combined. He called the plan a “historic turning point toward a clean-energy economy”.

Environmentalists and the automobile industry both backed the plan, and were equally enthused.

The new rules, which begin to take effect in 2012, stipulate that by 2016 most passenger cars must reach 39 miles per US gallon (47 miles per Imperial gallon) — up from 27.5 mpg today — while light trucks will have to run at 30 miles per US gallon (36 miles per Imperial gallon), up from 23 mpg. Cars will also have to be 30 per cent cleaner in exhaust emissions.

It is the first time the US Government has combined fuel efficiency and emissions in one package, the most sweeping new set of auto rules since the Clean Air Act of 1970. That set vehicle pollution standards for the first time and banned lead in petrol.

The new requirement is estimated to cost consumers an extra $1,300 (£840) per vehicle starting in 2016, but White House aides said that drivers would be saving money at the petrol pump. Mr Obama estimated that a typical driver would save $2,800 over the lifetime of a car in fuel costs. “The fact is, everyone wins. Consumers pay less for fuel, which means less money going overseas and more money to save or spend here at home,” Mr Obama said.

The rules ended a long-running feud between the struggling car industry, environmentalists and individual states over fuel standards. Thirteen states, led by California, had been pressing the Government to allow them to impose stricter standards on vehicles than the current regime.

The Bush Administration blocked the demands and the car industry had also been challenging standards set by individual states in court.

In exchange for getting a single nationwide set of rules that gives them the clarity and predictability to redesign their cars, the vehicle makers agreed to drop all lawsuits, while California and other states agreed to abide by the new regulations. The 2016 target also brings forward by four years fuel-efficiency standards currently required under federal law.

At the same time, a massive energy and climate change Bill recently introduced to Congress would offer the “big three” carmakers, Ford, Chrysler and General Motors — all on the verge of collapse and already receiving billions in government aid — another $50 billion in low-cost loans to help them to retool their plants to make smaller cars.

The Bill, which faces significant Republican opposition because of the expensive emission caps it will place on industry, would also give government assistance in producing plug-in hybrids and the expensive batteries needed for such engines.

Another measure that has been introduced to Congress is a provision, dubbed “Cash for Clunkers”, which would give vouchers worth up to $4,000 to consumers who turn in a car that gets 18mpg or worse in exchange for buying a new or used car that exceeds the current federal fuelefficiency standards by 25 per cent.

Times recommends

• Energy-saving ideas from switched-on professor
• Rooks are as clever with tools as chimpanzees
• Burping of the lambs blows roast off menu