While the federal government, the states and the automotive industry fight over fuel economy standards for American cars, the government of Canada is calling for a single North American standard to be applied by all three governments that build cars for the North American market. Automotive News reports:
Environment Minister Jim Prentice said today Canada aspires to be part of a stringent North American standard on fuel efficiency for the continent’s heavily integrated auto industry.
“At this point in the United States, it would appear that they are headed towards a 35-mile-per-gallon standard by 2020 and that would start to come into effect in the 2011 model year,” Prentice told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in Washington.
“We’ve essentially been prepared to go in that same direction … what we’re striving for is a North American standard because we know there’s only one North American automobile industry.”
Prentice is in Washington for talks on using cleaner energy in both the U.S. and Canada.