President Bush has called on federal
agencies to develop an energy plan. He wants
them to cut oil use and reduce vehicle emissions
before he leaves office. But as Dustin Dwyer
reports, some environmentalists are
not impressed:
Transcript
President Bush has called on federal
agencies to develop an energy plan. He wants
them to cut oil use and reduce vehicle emissions
before he leaves office. But as Dustin Dwyer
reports, some environmentalists are
not impressed:
The president says he wants to cut oil use 20% in the next ten years.
The question is how to get that done. He prefers that Congress pass
new laws to make the cut happen.
While they debate the issue, the president has ordered the
Environmental Protection Agency to work with the Departments of
Transportation, Energy and Agriculture to finalize their own approach
by the end of 2008.
But the Sierra Club says the president could get his plan done right
now by raising federal fuel economy standards. The President has
already called for raising the current standards by four percent per
year.
But right now, the standards are at the same level they’ve been at for
the past 17 years.
For their part, auto executives have opposed any plan to raise the
standards. They say the regulations could cost them billions of dollars
to implement.
For the Environment Report, I’m Dustin Dwyer.