Now that everyone has had a few days to digest the impact of the new Energy Bill that was signed by President Bush on Wednesday, what do they think? Here's a cheat sheet:

• EDTA: "Applauds" the bill
• National Biodiesel Board: "Praises" the bill
• Jim Press, Chrysler Vice Chairman and President: "Praises" Congress and the President.
• Auto Alliance: "Pleased" with the bill
• Greenpeace: Politicians "responded by legislating on behalf of special interests rather than Americans and the future of the planet."
• GM: "Commends" the politicians
• Ford: says the bill will "provide a significant increase in fuel economy while protecting consumers' choices of cars, SUVs and light trucks"
• The Union of Concerned Scientists: "[The bill] begin[s] our journey to solve global warming and achieve energy independence."

I've pasted the full text of these statements after the jump. I found the statements from GM and Ford not on the companies' official media sites, but at Four Wheel Drift, which also includes this: "No press release can beat the positive PR received by Toyota, when Congress sent the bill to the White House in a Prius - illustrating that American lawmakers couldn't find a true icon of fuel savings locally."

[Source: the organizations listed above. Photo by Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty]

Not that there was any real question, but the 35 mpg CAFE deed is now done. President Bush signed the huge new energy bill into law this morning, and that means that automakers will need to have the average fleet economy of new vehicles reach 35 mpg by 2020. We don't need rehash the history of this repeatedly-weakened bill once again (see previous posts here and here if you need a recap); let's just be thankful that the 35 mpg standard survived all the backing down. And the Detroit News mentions this: "a measure in the bill that will provide at least $90 million annually for battery research to make plug-in hybrids a reality." Somehow I thought the PHEV money had been stricken. Hey, it's nice to be wrong. While the 35 mpg number won't kick in until 2020, the bill mandates changes starting with the 2011 model year. My, that's soon.

[Source: David Shepardson, The Detroit News, Photo by Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty]