President Obama said this today in Charlottesville, Virginia: “My opponent called my fuel efficiency standards ‘extreme.’ Maybe steam engine standards are more his speed.”

According to an L.A. Times editorial, he’s not far off. The problem is also that Team Romney arguments against the president’s plan are, per the article, “untrue in every particular”:

The new standards would be phased in from model year 2017 to 2025; by the end of that time, each automaker’s passenger vehicle fleet would average 54.5 miles per gallon. This won’t limit vehicle choices, because it’s a fleet average — there will still be four-wheel-drive pickups, vans and other heavy vehicles on the road, but they will be lighter and more fuel efficient than they are today and will have to be offset with more high-mileage alternatives. Romney’s price argument, meanwhile, is the sort of thing you’d expect from a clueless rich guy. Yes, the new technologies will cost more upfront, but only very wealthy people pay the full price of a new car upfront. Most people finance such purchases, and the monthly savings on gas resulting from the new standards are expected to more than make up for a car buyer’s higher monthly payment.

As the editorial points out, the Obama administration’s fuel standards are the most important environmental achievement of the president’s first term. And one of the arguments against it is that lighter vehicles aren’t as safe. However:

The heaviest classes of vehicles will probably see the biggest weight reductions. That should help reduce fatalities because the mass differential involved when an SUV collides with a subcompact plays a big factor in the death rate.

Obama’s plan will reduce reliance on foreign oil while having an impact on combating climate change. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it will save 4 billion barrels of oil and 2 billion metric tons of greenhouse-gas emissions, with a net benefit to society of up to $421 billion, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

But that doesn’t matter to Republicans, because:

The GOP plot to obstruct continues.