The heads of the federal environmental and transportation agencies are working together to devise a single policy for regulating vehicle emissions, according to an announcement made by White House energy policy coordinator Carol Browner.
Browner said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson are combining mileage standards and emissions standards, according to a Bloomberg News report.
"We are obviously in difficult times in terms of restructuring that is going on with some of the companies, but the hope is that we will come to a unified approach for the next generation of vehicles," Browner told a meeting of the Western Governors Association.
One of the Obama administration's first moves upon taking office was to direct the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its March 2008 decision to block California and 13 other states from using tailpipe emission standards to reduce global warming pollution from cars and light trucks.
A unified federal standard would address the objections made by automobile manufacturers that it would cost billions of dollars to adhere to a patchwork of differing state regulations on vehicle emissions.
