Obama Will Streamline Emissions, Fuel Rules for Autos

President Obama will announce plans for new national automobile fuel-economy and emissions standards tomorrow, overhauling and streamlining the current patchwork, sources tell Politico. The move will harmonize the CAFE standard and the EPA’s greenhouse-gas standard, so that struggling automakers needn’t fear the regulations moving independently. The announcement will also likely appease California, which had been asking for permission to institute its own, tougher caps.

Obama has secretly secured support from a variety of state governments and a huge array of automakers, including General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, and BMW. The plan would raise the economy standard for cars to 35 miles per gallon by 2016, 4 years sooner than required by law, the Wall Street Journal adds. (More Obama administration stories.)