By Maria Kay Fotopoulos | Research by Karin Amour

It was a hot week, yes? That wasn’t surprising to scientists at the National Climatic Data Center, who issued a report that the first half of 2006 was the hottest year on record. Part of the reason why we have such warm weather is because of greenhouse gases, which we can trace to automobiles burning fossil fuels on the road, here and around the world.

After years of criticism from greens and independent testing groups, the U.S. EPA announced on Friday that its rules for testing automobile fuel economy will finally be updated and revised. New standards should be in place for testing 2008 model year cars. It’s a move long opposed by the automobile industry, since the revisions could decrease mile-per-gallon estimates for new vehicles by as much as 10 percent.