Vowing Energy Independence,Obama Calls For Stricter Fuel Standards

Promising to “reverse our dependence on foreign oil,” President Obama unveiled several major energy initiatives Monday, including an order directing federal regulators to act quickly on an application by California and 13 other states to set tough new fuel efficiency standards. Signaling a sharp break from the Bush administration and saying “my administration will not deny facts ”“ we will be guided by them,” Obama instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to review — and presumably approve — California’s request to require boosting fuel efficiency of cars and light trucks from 27 miles per gallon today to roughly 35 miles per gallon by 2016. The president also asked his Secretary of Transportation to draw up tighter national fuel efficiency standards to be imposed beginning in 2011. Obama also called for a doubling of production of renewable energy within three years, sufficient to power 6 million homes; the construction or improvement of 3,000 miles of modernized electricity transmission lines; and the adoption of a program to make 2 million homes and 75 percent of federal buildings more energy-efficient.