Washington – A key Senate committee Tuesday adopted a fuel-efficiency plan that would require automakers’ products to average 35 mpg by 2020.
Democrats said the measure is on a fast track to be voted on next month by the full Senate, bolstering momentum for a rule change automakers have successfully blocked for nearly two decades.
By a voice vote, the Senate Commerce Committee Tuesday unanimously approved a compromise bill but was still to consider amendments this morning, said Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii. “This is not a perfect bill,” Inouye said.
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said he would offer an amendment on the Senate floor to increase the requirement to 40 mpg.
The bill adopted by the panel also would give automakers $50 million a year in advanced battery-research funding.
The full Senate will take up the bill in June.
That move may put pressure on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. That committee has sought to adopt an economy-wide measure to reduce greenhouse gases rather than pass a stand-alone Corporate Average Fuel Economy increase.
When Congress adopted the CAFE program in 1975, the measure required automakers to more than double fuel mileage for passenger cars from 13 mpg to 27.5 mpg in a decade. That standard hasn’t been increased since.
