Bush Outlines Emissions-Reduction Plan

President Bush Monday ordered U.S. government agencies to begin taking regulatory steps to curb vehicle emissions and urged Congress to enact legislation to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

The proposal sets a mandatory fuel standard that requires 35 billion gallons of renewable and other alternative fuels to be available by 2017, the president said, according to a White House transcript. That’s about five times the target amount due by 2012, Bloomberg reported.

Citing last month’s Supreme Court ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency must enact rules to reduce greenhouse gases, and reiterated a plan he outlined in this year’s State of the Union address in January which would reduce gasoline consumption by 20% over the next 10 years.

Following the court’s directive, Bush directed agencies to review all aspects of the “complicated legal and technical” issues by the end of 2008. The agencies involve are EPA and Departments of Transportation, Energy and Agriculture, the Associated Press reported.