On January 26, 2009, President Barack Obama directed the Department of Transportation to review relevant legal, technological, and scientific considerations associated with establishing more stringent fuel economy standards, and to finalize the 2011 model year standard by the end of March.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation announced in a Press Release on March 27, 2009 that the National Highway Traffic Safety (NHTSA) has now posted the new fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks for the 2011 model year and that the resulting Final Rule for Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) will be published in the Federal Register on March 30, 2009 [Docket No. NHTSA-2009-0062]. The DOT Secretary said that "These standards are important steps in the nation's quest to achieve energy independence and bring more fuel efficient vehicles to American families."
The NHTSA states that these new standards will raise the industry-wide combined (car and light truck) average to 27.3 miles per gallon. This is a 2.0 mpg increase over the 2010 model year combined average, as estimated by NHTSA. The government claims that this will save about 887 million gallons of fuel and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 8.3 million metric tons.
To accomplish this new 27.3 mpg combined average CAFE standard, the agency projects that if each manufacturer produced its expected mix of vehicles and just met its obligation under these new "optimized" standards that for MY 2011:
- Passenger cars would achieve an average of 30.2 mpg, and that,
- Light trucks would achieve an average of 24.1 mpg.
In addition, this new 2011 model year standard is required to use an "attribute-based" system, which sets fuel economy standards for individual vehicle models based on size. NHTSA is also adopting a new Part 536 regulation on the use of "credits" earned by exceeding these new CAFE standards. This Part 536 establishes a credit trading program and a credit transfer program. This allows manufacturers to earn credits for exceeding the standards and to apply those credits to CAFE standards in future years.
NHTSA has decided at this time not to include any state preemption provisions, but will re-examine this in the context of CAFE rulemaking for MY 2012 and later years.
The DOT Secretary also noted that work on a multi-year fuel economy plan for model years after 2011 is already well underway. The future rulemaking for MY 2012 and beyond will include an evaluation of fuel saving technologies, market conditions and future product plans from the manufacturers. The effort will be coordinated with interested stakeholders and other federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency.