US Senate bill aims to boost SUV fuel efficiency
Date: 31-Jan-03
Country: USA
SUVs and pick-up trucks now account for about half of all vehicles sold each year in the United States.
Environmental groups favor higher mileage requirements for gas-guzzling SUVs as a way to reduce US oil consumption. However, the auto industry has fought any substantial changes, saying they would require lighter weight vehicles that would be less safe for consumers.
The bill would boost the current Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards required in SUVs and other light trucks from 20.7 miles per gallon (mpg) to 27.5 mpg by 2012.
The new Senate proposal for SUVs, pickups and minivans would match existing efficiency requirements of 27.5 mpg for passenger cars, first adopted in 1975 by Congress following the Arab oil embargo.
Increasing fuel efficiency would save 1 million barrels of oil each day and reduce imports by 10 percent, according to the legislation's sponsors.
"We incorporate that into the (bill), but pick up where the administration left and go further," said Scott Gerber, spokesman for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat.
Feinstein will introduce the bill with Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican.
The bill is not expected to get very far after a similar bid last year was stalled when Senate Democrats and Republicans joined to block efforts to boost fuel efficiency.
One additional Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, will join six Democrats in co-sponsoring the legislation which would impose stricter standards than those favored by the Bush administration, congressional aides said this week.
The Bush administration in November proposed increasing fuel standards for SUVs and other light trucks by 1.5 mpg between the 2005 and 2007 model years.
The Republican-controlled House has not introduced similar legislation.
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last month also proposed increasing fuel economy standards for average fuel economy of light trucks to 22.2 mpg in model year 2007.
Support for raising fuel efficiency standards has drawn the ire of US automakers who say increases should come from advances in technology rather than being mandated by Congress.
Lawmakers began looking into raising fuel efficiency standards last year following a six-year moratorium by Congress.