This is good news: the Obama administration has announced updated CAFE standards, which not only require (according to the story I heard on the radio, though the text I can find on NPR’s website doesn’t include these numbers) that new passenger cars get an average of 39 miles per gallon and new light trucks and SUVs average 30 mpg by 2016, but also specify the regulations, for the first time, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.  The shift in focus is important.  I don’t know how much more good work we can expect on environmental issues, after President Obama’s troubling decision to open offshore drilling, but it’s heartening to see at least some parts of the government taking the threat of climate change somewhat seriously.

]]>