Go Greener Tips

div class=image style=float:right;padding-left:8px;img alt=international fuel economy chart border=1 height=360 src=http://l.yimg.com/a/feeds/us/grn/green_daily_news/int-fuel-economy-lg.jpg width=460//divpPresident Obama has won wild praise for brokering a compromise on fuel efficiency standards that pleased not only car makers, but the tough regulators in California and the tough critics in the environmental community. (Even we called it a href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/fuel-efficient-cars-47102201miracle work/a.) And for good reason: The new fuel efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions standards are the first U.S. regulation of greenhouse gases, and they will boost fuel efficiency of American vehicles by some 40% by 2016./ppBut even then, when U.S. cars get an average of 35.5 mpg, the U.S. will lag behind Chinese efficiency standards today. And U.S. cars won’t even approach the efficiency of European or Japanese cars emtoday/em./ppChina today requires an average fuel efficiency of 35.8 mpg, according to the Center for Biological Diversity — which sounded a note of criticism amid the din of cheers, even as it applauded Obama’s important step forward./ppIn Japan, the efficiency standard is 42.6 mpg and in Europe the standard is yet higher: 43.3 mpg./ppUnder those regulations, only the top a href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/fuel-efficient-cars-47102201most efficient 2009 car/a would rank above average: The Toyota Prius with its combined 46 mpg. Even the second-most fuel-efficient car sold in the U.S. today, the Honda Civic Hybrid, gets a combined 42 mpg — which would drag down the average fuel economy of a European or Japanese fleet./ppToday, only a href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/fuel-efficient-cars-4710220114 of the 2009 U.S. models/a (three of them SUVs) even get 30 mpg or better — and only the two mentioned above get better than 35.5 mpg today. So Obama’s new policy will certainly transform the U.S. car industry — but it won’t lead the world./pp /ppstrongMore from The Daily Green/strong/pullia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/chrysler-dealerships-closing-47051403?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=artmag=tdgFour Ways to Use Old Car Dealerships/a/lilia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/automotive-x-prize-contestants-461208?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=artmag=tdg22 Cars That Could Get 100 mpg/a/lilia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/blogs/cars-transportation/clean-car-technologies-460908?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=artmag=tdgThe Eight Clean Car Technologies Likely to Replace Gas/a/lilia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/fuel-efficient-cars-47040904?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=artmag=tdgFive New Fuel-Efficient Cars that Dazzle the Critics/a/lilia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/save-money-gas-47050902?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=artmag=tdgHow to Pay 50 Cents or Less for Gas/a/li/ulpemReprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc/em/p

Original post