A House of Representatives committee introduced a bill that would stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles from the year 2015 onwards, a key part of a national fuel economy program that is actually favored by many automakers.

While the bill was supposedly passed in the interest of keeping vehicle prices low for consumers, automakers have previously backed a single unified fuel economy system, rather than various state-by-state regulations. The automakers have not commented on the bill, introduced by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), but reiterated their support for a national program. Upton’s bill would leave NHTSA as the sole federal agency that was responsible for the program.

[Source: Automotive News]

TrueCar.com released their rankings of the Top 10 Most Fuel Efficient vehicles in both the hybrid and non-hybrid category, an important distinction according to TrueCar, because “Hybrids offer great fuel economy but most don’t provide the value consumers are seeking.”

The hybrid list is predictably topped by the Toyota Prius, followed by the Lexus CT200h and Honda Insight. The non-hybrid category is led by the Hyundai Elantra, the Chevrolet Cruze Eco and the Toyota Yaris. The much lauded diesels sold by Volkswagen and Audi took 6th through 8th spots respectively.

Hit the jump to read the official press release

[Source: TrueCar]

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Yesterday President Obama announced a new proposal being put forward to increase fuel-economy standards across the board. If enacted, the legislation would see the fleet average for passenger vehicles rise to 35.5 mpg by 2016.

Currently automakers are facing an 8 percent increase in fuel-economy standards that would see fleet averages for light-vehicles (cars and trucks) at 27.3 mpg for 2011. Cars would have to achieve a fleet average of 30.2 mpg by that date.

The new legislation would see increases of 5 percent annually after that, with a fleet average of 35.5 mpg by 2016.

President Obama made the announcement at the White House yesterday and was joined by representatives of 10 supporting automakers and the UAW.  In attendance were GM CEO Fritz Henderson, Ford’s Alan Mullaly, Chrysler’s Bob Nardelli, Toyota’s Jim Lentz, Honda’s John Mendel, BMW’s Friedrich Eichiner, Nissan’s Dominique Thormann, Daimler’s Dieter Zetsche, Mazda’s Jim O’Sullivan, Volkswagen’s Stefan Jacoby and the UAW’s Ron Gettelfinger.

If enacted the proposal would reduce America’s fuel-consumption by 1.8 billion barrels of oil.

The agreement was arrived at with the consent of California, which will cease to have its own fuel-economy standards.

The cost of achieving the new fuel-economy standard is expected to be roughly $600 per vehicle, a tab that will no doubt be passed along to the consumer.

[Source: Automotive News]