There’s less than meets the eye to the Bush administration’s new fuel economy rules for light trucks and SUVs. Better mileage for those bigger vehicles is a plus, but the new rules also undercut efforts by 10 states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Such state efforts could, as a side effect, improve the average gas mileage in the nation’s automobile and light truck fleets. So, rather than being a step forward, the federal rules represent some backsliding.
The Bush administration says its new plan improves matters because for the first time gas mileage standards will apply to giant SUVs such as Hummers. The administration’s plan will boost SUV fuel standards to 22.2 miles per gallon for 2007 vehicles and 24 mpg by 2011, when the largest SUV will be included in the calculation. That’s a modest improvement over rules in place for the past five years, which require light trucks to get 21.8 mpg.
The new rules could save the nation about 10.7 billion gallons of fuel over the lifetime of the vehicles sold between 2008 and 2011. That’s certainly better than nothing. But the benefit will be limited because American drivers burn through about 140 billion gallons of gas each year.
The auto industry already has the know-how to make vehicles far more fuel-efficient than even the new rules require. At the Denver Auto Show, taking place this weekend downtown at the Colorado Convention Center, car makers are displaying hybrids, including SUVs, that get significantly better mileage than conventional engines. There’s no reason to not push the energy efficiency envelope.
It’s unfortunate that the Bush administration used the new rules to stymie other important environmental efforts. State plans to reduce greenhouses gases emitted by automobiles have been embraced by California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, Oregon and Washington. Since carbon dioxide (a chief climate change suspect), comes from burning fossil fuels, the states’ push would have led car companies to make vehicles more energy efficient.
But in a heavy-handed move, the government used the new fuel rules to say that states can’t take stronger action on global warming and emissions than Washington has. Given that the government’s move is so modest, blocking state action is especially short-sighted and should be reversed.
