Up in Smoke

Obama offered his energy proposal yesterday at the University of New Hampshire and has introduced a bill in the Senate. California has already introduced an effective initiative to lower carbon content, and Obama's plan for the whole country mirrors that of California's. He says the fuel used to power automobiles should contain less of the carbon that pollutes the air - enough to make the same impact as taking 32 million cars off the road.

It's nice to see someone in the government recognize that fossil fuels and global warming are a problem that need to be dealt with, unlike Bush who has choosen not to listen to ANY experts in the field and ignore the problem.

Specifically, Obama wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars by 5 percent in 2015 and 10 percent in 2020. Obama's plan counts on new limits to force increased production of renewable biofuels, such as corn and cellulosic ethanol, which naturally have lower emissions. The plan would create incentives for increased research, investment in cleaner fuels and flexible-fuel vehicles that can run on ethanol.

The campaign says a national fuel standard would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 200 million tons in 2020 compared with 2007 levels - the equivalent of taking about 32 million cars off the road in 2020The campaign also estimates the annual consumption of gasoline derived from foreign oil imports would drop by about 30 billion gallons in 2020.

The bill he introduced would raise fuel efficiency standards. If that were enacted and combined with his carbon program, it would cut about 583 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2020, the equivalent of taking about 96 million cars off the road.