Obama’s Order Is Likely to Tighten Auto Standards
By JOHN M. BRODER and PETER BAKER
NYT

WASHINGTON — President Obama will direct federal regulators on Monday to
move swiftly on an application by California and 13 other states to set
strict automobile emission and fuel efficiency standards, two
administration officials said Sunday.

The directive makes good on an Obama campaign pledge and signifies a
sharp reversal of Bush administration policy. Granting California and
the other states the right to regulate tailpipe emissions would be one
of the most emphatic actions Mr. Obama could take to quickly put his
stamp on environmental policy.

Mr. Obama’s presidential memorandum will order the Environmental
Protection Agency to reconsider the Bush administration’s past rejection
of the California application. While it stops short of flatly ordering
the Bush decision reversed, the agency’s regulators are now widely
expected to do so after completing a formal review process.

Once they act, automobile manufacturers will quickly have to retool to
begin producing and selling cars and trucks that get higher mileage than
the national standard, and on a faster phase-in schedule. The auto
companies have lobbied hard against the regulations and challenged them
in court.

Mr. Obama will use the announcement to bolster the impression of a sharp
break from the Bush era on all fronts, following his decisions last week
to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; tighten limits
on interrogation tactics by Central Intelligence Agency officers; order
plans to withdraw combat forces from Iraq; and reverse President George
W. Bush’s financing restrictions on groups that promote or provide
abortion overseas, administration officials said.

Beyond acting on the California emissions law, officials said, Mr. Obama
will direct the Transportation Department to quickly finalize interim
nationwide regulations requiring the automobile industry to increase
fuel efficiency standards to comply with a 2007 law, rules that the Bush
administration decided at the last minute not to issue.

To avoid losing another year, Mr. Obama will order temporary regulations
to be completed by March so automakers have enough time to retool for
vehicles sold in 2011. Final standards for later years will be
determined by a separate process that under Mr. Obama’s order must take
into consideration legal, scientific and technological factors.

He will also order federal departments and agencies to find new ways to
save energy and be more environmentally friendly. And he will highlight
the elements in his $825 billion economic stimulus plan intended to
create jobs around renewable energy.

The announcements, to be made in the East Room, will begin a week of
efforts to get the stimulus plan through Congress. The White House hopes
the Senate will confirm Timothy F. Geithner as Treasury secretary on
Monday, and Mr. Obama plans to travel to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to meet
with both Senate and House Republican caucuses and lobby for his
stimulus package. Mr. Obama’s aides expect the House to vote on its plan
on Wednesday.
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So far, Obama is doing very well on this liberal's agenda.