Feds Consider Shifting Gears on Fuel Efficiency

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, December 23, 2003 (ENS) - The Bush administration says it is considering the elimination a loophole that exempts the heaviest sport utility vehicles and pick up trucks from federal fuel economy standards. The revision is one of several proposed by the administration to reform the nation's fuel economy standards, which have long been criticized by environmentalists as too lax.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta says the proposal to change the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards aims to revise and modernize the standards to balance America's need for better fuel efficiency while maximizing auto safety and maintaining a healthy economy.

CAFE standards require automakers to meet a sales weighted fuel economy level for the fleets of new cars and light trucks sold each year - it is 27.5 mpg for cars and 20.7 mpg for light trucks, which include most minivans, SUVs and pickup trucks.

In addition to considering the closure of the loophole for large SUVs that weigh between 8,500 and 10,000 pounds, the administration is considering how to update the existing regulatory definitions that distinguish passenger cars from light trucks. This revision could affect the new "crossover" vehicles such as Chrysler's PT Cruiser - a passenger car currently defined as a light truck.

SUVs are not held to the same fuel economy standards applied to passenger cars. (Photo courtesy Chevrolet)

The proposal, issued in an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking by the Department of Transportation, will be open for public comment for the next three months.

Mineta said the proposal "marks the beginning of an important national dialogue on how best to reform this program."

"We can and must work together to save more fuel, increase passenger safety and protect American jobs," he said.

Environmentalists are keen to see revisions to the CAFE program - in particular to force SUVs to meet higher fuel economy standards - but they caution that the Bush proposal would do little to change the status quo.

"The loophole the Bush administration proposes to close may move us one step forward, but the one they propose to open for the auto industry will likely move us three steps back," said Daniel Becker, Director of Sierra Club's Global Warming and Energy Program.

Becker says the proposal to restructure the light truck category will create an incentive for automakers to add weight to their other trucks in order to qualify them for weaker standards.

There is some precedent for this - auto companies currently add weight to trucks to place them over the current 8,500 pound weight, which exempts them from CAFE standards.

By creating more truck weight classes, automaker will have new opportunities to fatten their vehicles to take advantage of weaker standards, Becker said.

Large SUVs appear throughout the United States, often in traffic jams. (Photo by Ian Britton courtesy freefoto.com)

The automakers did not comment on the specifics of the proposal.

The current CAFE program is loathed by automakers, but at least they know how to navigate - or ignore - the rules.

The Bush administration says the automakers on average pay $33 million in fines each year rather than complying with the CAFE standards.

Where the lines are drawn between the weight categories will help or hurt different automakers and U.S. firms will resist any changes that could stem the sale of SUVs.

Americans clearly love their light trucks, in particular SUVs, and low fuel economy has not stopped record purchases of these vehicles.

Light trucks account for more than 50 percent of all new U.S. vehicle sales and are the biggest moneymakers for U.S. automakers.

But pressure is also growing for the administration to take meaningful steps to reduce the nation's oil consumption and the automotive sector is a tempting target.

The United States consumes some 20 million barrels of oil each day, with cars and light trucks accounting for some 40 percent of the total, and the nation's overall fuel economy for model year 2002 was the lowest since 1980.

SUVs and other light trucks on average consume one third more fuel than cars and now make up half of all vehicles sold annually in the United States.

They are more polluting as well, in particular because some 90 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles are due to fuel consumption.

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta says the administration will balance fuel economy with safety and economic concerns. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Transportation)

Environmentalists call the increase marginal at best, but automakers considered challenging the change and argued it would cost them billions of dollars and force them to compromise safety of these vehicles.

But analysis by the National Academies of Science found that technology exists to raise the fuel economy of SUVs and trucks higher than the Bush administration's increase, without compromising vehicle safety or making automakers spend more than they can afford.

Additional research by the nonprofit research group Environmental Defense determined that fuel saving technologies and design changes are available today that can safely and affordably improve fuel economy by five percent per year for 10 years.

"The Bush administration's latest plan is just more window dressing, not a real solution to one of our nation's most pressing energy problems," said League of Conservation Voters President Deb Callahan.