New CAFE Standards Finally Signed

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This has been in the works for a long time, but it’s still nice to see it finally made official:

The Obama administration finalized the first national rules curbing greenhouse gas emissions Thursday, mandating that the U.S. car and light-truck fleet reach an average fuel efficiency of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.

The new fuel efficiency standards, issued by the Transportation Department and the Environmental Protection Agency as the result of a May 2009 deal with the auto industry, represent a peaceful end to a contentious legal battle over how to regulate tailpipe emissions….As a result of the new rules, the U.S. vehicle fleet is projected to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 21 percent by 2030.

For all the crap CAFE gets from conservatives and car buffs, it’s been an astonishingly successful program. It probably cut oil use following the embargoes of the 70s more effectively than any program before or since — and unlike gas prices, which fell precipitously in the early 80s, it had a permanent effect. What’s more, for most of us it did it with virtually no noticeable impact on the cars we drive.

Technology has advanced a lot since the original CAFE standards were adopted, and I expect the new ones to have approximately the same invisible effect on the kinds of cars we drive. At the margins, it will make the most egregious gas guzzlers a little more expensive. It might even spell the end of a few of them. And on average, your next new car might accelerate from zero to sixty half a second slower. But that’s about it. And in return we’ll extend our oil supplies, import a bit less from Saudi Arabia, and cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. It’s no panacea, but it sure is a cheap way to make a difference.

 

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WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

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