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Politics

Bill would say bye to gas guzzlers

A Senate bill requires more fuel efficiency from automakers.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 23, 2007

WASHINGTON - The cars, SUVS and pickups people will buy in the years ahead are likely to use less fuel, and many will rely on ethanol or household electricity instead of gasoline.

The energy legislation pushed through the Senate this week provides a road map to the future, demanding higher automobile fuel economy, mandating huge increases in ethanol as a motor fuel and supporting more research into building "plug-in" hybrid-electric vehicles.

While Senate Republicans complained that the bill does nothing to increase domestic oil production, Democrats said that's because the nation must move energy policy away from its heavy reliance on oil.

The Senate voted 65-27 in favor of the bill late Thursday night. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., voted for it, and Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., voted against it. The House is preparing its own version.

The Senate bill requires automakers to increase fuel economy to 35 miles per gallon, about a 40 percent increase over what cars, SUVs and small trucks are required to achieve now. It would lump all the vehicles under a single regulation, but also give manufacturers flexibility so large SUVs wouldn't have to meet the same requirements as smaller cars.

And for the first time, the president would have to find ways to cut oil demand by 20 percent of what it is expected to be in 2017 - a target President Bush has embraced - and attain further reductions after that.

"The goal is to replace fossil fuels with alternative fuels and use conservation, " said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who was involved in the bill.

Automakers, lobbying hard against the fuel economy provision in the Senate bill, expressed continued concern Friday about their ability to meet the requirements without changing the mix of cars they will be able to provide in the showrooms of 2020.

"There's no way you can get those numbers without a dramatic shift in consumer choice, " said Mark LaNeve, General Motors' vice president of North America sales, service and marketing. "We don't know how it's attainable."

Fast Facts:

Energy bill

The Senate energy legislation includes:

-An increase in automobile fuel economy requirements to a fleetwide average of 35 mpg by 2020 from the current requirements of 27.5 mpg for cars and 22.2 mpg for SUVs and small trucks.

-A requirement that half of new cars manufactured by 2015 be capable of running on 85 percent ethanol or biodiesel fuels.

-A requirement to produce 36-billion gallons a year of ethanol, as a substitute for gasoline, by 2022, a sevenfold increase over 2006.

-New appliance and lighting efficiency standards.

[Last modified June 23, 2007, 00:13:19]