New Standards Cut U.S. Oil Consumption by 20 Percent

More oil will be saved through President Obama's new mileage and emissions standards than would be produced if both the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the currently restricted parts of the outer continental shelf were opened for drilling, says a Duke University environmental scientist.

"An estimated 1.4 billion barrels of oil will be saved once President Obama's new standards take full effect, reducing the nation's annual oil consumption by more than 20 percent. By comparison, opening up the outer continental shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling would only increase our domestic oil supply by 350 million barrels per year," says Bill Chameides, dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke.

Obama announced Tuesday (today) that automakers must meet average U.S. fuel-economy standards of 35.5 miles per gallon and reduce their vehicles' greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 30 percent by 2016, four years sooner than previously planned under the Energy Independence And Security Act of 2007. The standards cover model years 2012-16. Obama's plan adopts a standard first proposed at the state level by California in 2002 and since by 13 other states.

While praising the new standards, Chameides notes they fall a bit short of what some other countries are doing.

"The president's fuel economy goal is not chump change by any stretch. But how ambitious is it on a global scale? Let's look at how it stacks up to other countries' standards, in miles per gallon," Chameides says. "In Japan, the standard is 47 mpg; in the European Union, it's 48 mpg; and in China, it varies between 21 and 43 mpg, depending on vehicle class."

Chameides is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and blogs regularly about environmental issues at The Green Grok, www.thegreengrok.com. He writes about the new fuel-economy standards in his May 19 Green Grok post.