Bush fuel economy plan has rough debut in Congress

Automotive News had an interesting article on Bush's proposal to increase our nations fuel economy. Here's the article along with my comments.

The Bush administration estimates that its plan to improve fuel economy would raise the price of the average General Motors car $1,800 by 2017. In contrast, the price of the average Honda would increase less than $600. President Bush wants to raise fuel economy standards by as much as 4 percent a year, to meet his goal of cutting U.S. gasoline consumption by 20 percent over 10 years. You know unfortunately I think it has to be done. We have to challenge the our automotive industry improve the overall fuel ecomony. I think that this is a real opportunity for our "D3" automakers to work together and find solutions that will help them get to the goal faster and cheaper. The bottom line is the Japanese have been working on perfecting their engines and improving fuel economy for years.

Data on the plan's possible disparate impact on automakers emerged last week during a House hearing. Administration officials appeared before a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to defend the plan. They conceded it is a work in progress, especially the 4 percent-a-year provision."It's a target," said Nicole Nason, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "I don't know that we'll get there." NHTSA has set higher fuel standards for light trucks through the 2011 model year, although nowhere near 4 percent a year. The administration wants Congress to authorize NHTSA to set separate fuel standards for different sizes of cars. The fleet car standard has been at 27.5 mpg since 1990. Amazing, the same since 1990. We had 16 years to work on improving the fleet fuel economy and we didn't improve it. So with flirting with $3 gas again, we need to get on with it.

Lawmakers of both parties challenged details of the plan. The debate over vehicle fuel economy is further complicated by the growing interest in Congress to enact a broader law that would limit greenhouse-gas emissions from all sources. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the full committee, historically has allied himself with automakers opposed to higher standards. But he said last week, "The old debate is no longer sufficient."

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