By Robert Colman

Yesterday, U.S. President Barack Obama announced an historic agreement, setting in motion a national fuel efficiency and auto emissions policy aimed at increasing gas mileage and decreasing greenhouse gas pollution for all new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. Like every other move this President makes, it's a good move for Canada as well.

Fuel economy standards will be raised to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, an increase of more than 8 miles per gallon per vehicle. As a result, according to White House calculations, 1.8 billion barrels of oil will be saved over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the next five years — more oil than the U.S. imported last year from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Libya, and Nigeria combined.

The policy came out of a collaboration between the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the world’s largest auto manufacturers, the United Auto Workers, leaders in the environmental community, the State of California, and other state governments.

Last year, I doubt we would have seen such a meeting of minds. The auto industry has pushed back hard and long to avoid this day in North America. And yet, with these changes the U.S. (and by extension Canada) will still lag behind Europe.

On the positive side, it's yet another move that will affect Canada in a positive way. Inevitably, with these changes in the U.S. we'll see the same changes here in Canada as well.

When a candidate uses the word "change" in a presidential run, i generally reduce that to buzz word status, but Obama makes me believe we might all experience more positive change this year and next than we have in a long time.

The Waxman-Markey bill is the next bit of legislation that could signal big changes in the U.S. and possibly drive change in Canada as well with respect to the development of a cap and trade system for carbon trading. The bill is being voted on this week. Stay tuned for more on this!

Robert Colman is editor of Green Business.

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