The Plan:

“For the first time in history, we have set in motion a national policy aimed at both increasing gas mileage and decreasing greenhouse gas pollution for all new trucks and cars sold in the United States of America.”

“The goal is to set one national standard that will rapidly increase fuel efficiency — without compromising safety — by an average of 5 percent each year between 2012 and 2016, building on the 2011 standard my administration set shortly after taking office.”

Translation:

“…we’re seeking to raise fuel-economy standards to an industry average of 35.5 miles per gallon in 2016, an increase of more than eight miles per gallon per vehicle.”

“The program covers model year 2012 to model year 2016 and ultimately requires an average fuel economy standard of 35.5 mpg in 2016….” – White House Blog

Projected benefits from the new legislation:

“…we will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the next five years. Just to give you a sense of magnitude, that’s more oil than we imported last year from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Libya, and Nigeria combined. Here’s another way of looking at it: This is the projected equivalent of taking 58 million cars off the road for an entire year.”

 Read the transcript of President Obama’s full remarks

 Current CAFE standards