BLITZER: Let's talk about it with Carol Browner. She's a top presidential adviser on energy and climate change.

Thanks, Carol, very much for coming in.

CAROL BROWNER, ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE: Thanks for being...

BLITZER: The Big Three U.S. automakers, they are in financial trouble right now. Where are they going to get the money to create these -- these new lines of much more fuel-efficient vehicles?

BROWNER: Well, Wolf, one of the things we did is, we worked with all of the car companies to make sure that we were providing them flexibilities while we we're setting these tough new fuel-efficiency the first ever tailpipe greenhouse gas pollution standards.

And the car companies assure us that they will be able to meet these with the flexibilities that we have provided and give the consumers what they want, which are more fuel-efficient cars. It means, every time you fill up, that gallon of gas is going to go a little bit further than it used to.

BLITZER: Does this give additional advantage to the foreign carmakers, the Hondas, the Toyotas, because they already are building smaller, more fuel-efficient cars? And it will help them, presumably, more than it would help the Big Three.

BROWNER: We did it differently than we used to do it.

Under the old CAFE, the old fuel-efficiency standards, you averaged across your entire fleet. So, companies that made bigger cars had to make some smaller cars to offset the fuel efficiencies of those -- the small fuel gains of those bigger cars.

By requiring standards for each class size of vehicles, we actually preserve the consumer choice. There's no more just averaging across the fleet. There's actually looking at the size of cars you make. And, for every size of car a manufacturer makes, it's going to be cleaner. So, the consumer, you know, the soccer mom who wants her minivan, she can get her minivan. It's just going to be cleaner and more fuel-efficient.

BLITZER: It's going to cost up front, what, a little bit more than $1,000 to get this new cleaner, more fuel-efficient car. And, presumably, over the life of five or six or 10 years, people will make it up, because they will spend less on fuel. But they have to come up with the money to begin with. How difficult is that going to be in these tough economic times?

BROWNER: Well, that's right. They do make -- make back the money.

But it's also important to remember that most people buy their cars on time. They take out a loan for -- for 60 months, on average. And, so, if you amortize the cost of the loan over -- the cost of these new fuel efficiencies over the period of the loan, actually, for most people, it becomes very economical.

And they get the fuel savings right away. The minute they drive that car off the lot, they are getting fuel savings. And that's money in their pocket when it comes to the pump.

BLITZER: How -- are we going to see our highways pretty much like European highways, with really small cars out there, as opposed to what we're used to in the United States?

BROWNER: No. What we did by using a footprint or a class size approach, which is what we did, is preserve the consumer choice.

If consumers want to buy some bigger cars, perhaps, they can do that. But those are going to be more fuel-efficient. Every single type of car on the road will get more fuel-efficient, which is good for consumers.

BLITZER: Every single new car. But if you still have your old car, you can keep it, no matter what, right? You aren't going to be taking those cars away from people?

BROWNER: No. People don't -- their cars are not going to be taken away. But for somebody who is looking to buy a new car in the future, when they get ready to buy that car, they can have a more fuel-efficient car.

BLITZER: Do you support the proposal on the Hill what is called cash for clunkers? People give up their old cars, they get a little voucher to go ahead and buy a new, more fuel-efficient car. Is that a proposal the Obama administration supports?

BROWNER: The president has called for cash-for-clunker legislation. We think it's an important component of helping the -- the car industry in -- in the near term. We think -- we encourage Congress to pass legislation, and they have been working on it. BLITZER: And one final question: Could you have gotten this deal with the Big Three automakers, the labor unions, the lawmakers from Michigan, for example, if the U.S. federal taxpayers weren't already bailing out these -- these car -- Ford and Chrysler -- excuse me -- Chrysler and GM? Because you really control them now, for all -- for all intents and purposes.

BROWNER: I will tell you why we got this deal. The car companies, all of them, not just, you know, GM and Chrysler, all of them were looking at possibly three different regulations, one from California, one from the EPA, and one from the Department of Transportation.

What we did is weave all of that together to give the car companies one national policy and to give the consumer more fuel- efficient vehicles. It's a win-win.

BLITZER: Carol Browner is in charge of energy over at the White House.

Thanks very much for coming in.