China Goes Green

China is not renowned for its environmental protection, but the country's new fuel efficiency standards will be more stringent than those proposed by President Obama. Driven by spiraling dependence on foreign oil and environmental concerns, China's new regulations will require automakers to improve fuel efficiency by 18 percent by 2015, the New York Times reports. Chinese vehicles tend to be smaller and lighter than American cars, so they already get better mileage. The average new Chinese car gets 35.8 miles a gallon, but by 2015, it'll need to make 42.2 miles per gallon. In contrast, last week President Obama announced that automakers will have to achieve a mere 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.