President Obama to Announce 30% Reduction in Auto Emmissions

On Tuesday President Obama will announce his plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks by 30% by 2016, while ending a dispute between the auto industry and California over state-level emissions laws.

The announcement fills in a cornerstone of Obama’s vowed reworking of the U.S. auto industry, which he had promised to push toward more efficient models. What’s still unclear is just how the industry will pay for the improvements, especially with Chrysler surviving on government loans and General Motors Corp. in line to become majority-owned by the U.S. Treasury.

The announcement by the president Tuesday will include executives from automakers and officials from several states, including Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, whose appearance at the White House had sparked speculation about a Supreme Court nomination.

The deal will fulfill a campaign promise by Obama to allow California’s law limiting carbon-dioxide emissions from vehicles to go into effect. The Bush administration’s had blocked a federal waiver that would have allowed the rules to go forward in California and 13 other states.

Because vehicles emit carbon dioxide any time they burn fuel, the new rules amounted to a mileage standard, something domestic and foreign automakers argued only the federal government had the power to set.

Automakers have been fighting California’s efforts to limit global warming emissions for years, saying the rules were too strict — targeting an average of about 35 m.p.g. by 2016 — and could lead to a patchwork of rules in different states.

The new rule is expected to let California keep its own program targeting carbon emissions from vehicles. It wasn’t immediately clear this afternoon how the administration would measure the progress toward the target.

A senior administration official who would not comment on the topic of the meeting said earlier today that Granholm would be coming to the White House on Tuesday. The Associated Press reported last week that Granholm is on Obama’s short list to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court but the official – who wouldn’t be identified because the meeting and its topic had not yet been made public – said the meeting was unrelated to the Supreme Court.