If we could have the major email clients all supporting at least a subset of web standards, we would be in a much better situation than we are now. 

The Email Standards Project is an attempt to help move standards in HTML email forward, towards more consistent, reliable support.

The idea is that some time in the future web designers will be able to rely on a solid, consistent level of web standards support when designing and building HTML emails.

To get to that point, the folks behind the Email Standards Project are taking a two pronged approach, modeled on the Web Standards Project:

1. Education: Help web designers understand why web standards matter for email, so that they are willing to get involved in making it happen.
2. Provide as much assistance and feedback to the email client developers as possible. They have a lot of competing pressures, and The Email Standards Project wants to be as constructive as possible in making their case, and helping them to see where changes need to be made. You can see the beginnings of this with the email acid test results.

Visit the Email Standards Project's blog here.