President Obama looks to be making good another of his election pledges by signing a presidential memorandum that asks the Environmental Protection Agency to grant 14 states the power to impose stricter standards for automobile emissions and fuel efficiency.

It’s a promise that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had asked President Obama to make good on in a letter he sent the president the day after his inauguration.

The move hopes to overrule the decision of the EPA in 2007 which denied 14 states, including California, the right set their own, stricter automobile standards.

President Barack Obama wasn’t done there though. He also signed a memorandum that directs the Department of Transportation to come up with fuel-efficiency standards for the automotive industry for 2011 model vehicles.

In 2007 U.S. Congress approved the Energy Independence Act which was supposed reduce American dependence on foreign oil and make a push to develop more of an infrastructure for clean energy like electric vehicles and wind power. But as you probably know the Bush Administration wasn’t big on following through with the act and preferred the philosophy of “Drill, baby, drill.”

In reference to that President Obama stated today, “For the sake of our security, our economy and our planet, we must have the courage and commitment to change. We need more than the same old empty promises.”

Considering the recent study showing clean air provides longer life, these memorandums might have just extended the lives of millions of people.