Good But Not Cost-Free

At long last, there's agreement by key leaders on a workable and bold plan to increase vehicle mileage standards and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The result should be significant steps forward in reaching necessary goals: less reliance on fossil fuels and a reduction in the country's contribution to climate change.

The plan, announced by President Barack Obama in the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday, takes a two-pronged approach that would require vehicle carbon dioxide emissions to be reduced by about one-third by 2016 and would require the auto industry to build vehicles that average 35.5 miles per gallon by the same year, according to The Associated Press.

"As a result of this agreement, we will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the next five years," the president said. "And at a time of historic crisis in our auto industry, this rule provides the clear certainty that will allow these companies to plan for a future in which they are building the cars of the 21st century."

He said the new rules amounted to removing, in terms of gasoline consumption, 177 million cars from the roads over the next 6 1/2 years.

Obama was joined in the announcement by leaders of the auto industry and labor, government officials and key national and state political leaders.

Having everyone on board is a significant and welcome step forward after too many years of delay and foot-dragging.

States such as California get the tighter standards that they've been seeking, while the auto industry gets a single national standard and more time to meet the requirements than under state plans.

The plan does come with a cost. According to the AP, administration officials said consumers were going to pay an extra $700 for mileage standards that already had been approved. The Obama plan adds another $600 to the price of a vehicle, bringing the total cost to $1,300 by 2016. But the fuel cost savings would offset the higher price of vehicles in three years, according to Obama.

That's not too steep a price to pay for the benefits expected to accrue from the proposal, which still must clear procedural hurdles at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department.

Those hurdles should be cleared quickly, so the nation can get on with the essential business of cutting its reliance on oil and reducing its impact on climate change.

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