With gas prices soaring and congressional Democrats eager to flex their environmental muscles, the stars have seldom been better aligned for a longoverdue increase in automotive fuel economy standards. Yet the best hope for progress — a sensible bill from California Sen. Dianne Feinstein — underwent oral surgery recently and is now all but toothless.
Feinstein’s bill would require that every automaker’s combined car and light-truck fleets sold in the U. S. improve from an average of 25 miles per gallon to 35 mpg by 2019. While that was originally an ironclad mandate, the Senate Commerce Committee watered down the bill by allowing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to let carmakers off the hook if it determines the annual goals aren’t costeffective.
That Hummer-sized loophole means any administration hostile to tighter standards, or simply unwilling to take on the tough Detroit lobby, might be able to ignore them.
Without a firm government mandate, there’s a good chance the 35-mpg goal won’t be met, even two decades after Europe and Japan got there. That means higher greenhouse gas emissions and a greater reliance on foreign oil. That’s too heavy a cost for placating Detroit.
— Los Angeles Times
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