Senate Panel Slammed Bush Fuel Economy Plan

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Senate Panel Slammed Bush Fuel Economy Plan
March 2007 - The Bush 
administration's plan to revise fuel economy standards appears 
to have stalled on Capitol Hill, with both Democrats and 
Republicans criticizing the proposal as timid and inadequate. 
The White House wants authority to set new standards for 
passenger cars, but members of a key Senate panel on Tuesday 
argued a specific mandated increase in fuel economy is needed 
to reduce oil consumption and address global warming. 
"I sense a great deal of footdragging, reluctance and frankly 
bureaucratic obstacles to this process," said Senator Olympia 
Snowe, a Maine Republican, during a Senate Commerce Committee 
hearing on the issue. "We should be rising to the occasion and 
that is frankly not happening." 
Raising the fuel economy standards for passenger cars is part 
of President Bush's 20 in 10 plan, which aims to reduce 
gasoline consumption 20 percent by 2017. 
Maine Republic Senator Olympia Snowe said the Bush plan fails 
to show the urgency needed.
The proposal requires Congress give the National Highway 
Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) new authority to modify 
the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program so the 
administration can create different standards based on vehicle 
size and consider other factors, such as economics impacts and 
technological advances. 
The administration used a similar system for its recent 
revision to standards for light trucks. 
With the new authority, the administration says it envisions a 
4 percent annual increase in CAFE standards for passenger cars 
beginning in model year 2010 and for heavy trucks in 2012. 
"Our overall goal is to get as much fuel savings as possible 
from the program," NHTSA Administrator Nicole Nason told the 
committee. 
Currently automakers must meet a fleetwide CAFE standard of 
27.5 miles per gallon (mpg) - a standard that has been in 
place for more than 20 years. 
Nason said reform is needed because the program encourages 
automakers to make smaller cars, rather than creating 
incentives for increased fuel economy for every size of 
vehicle. 
"Given NHTSA's recent experience with setting the fuel economy 
standard for light trucks, which comprise half the vehicles 
sold today, we believe we have demonstrated our capability to 
set balanced standards for passenger vehicles, given the 
authority for reform," she told the committee. 
NHTSA Administrator Nicole Nason, who took her post last year, 
faced hostile questioning at the hearing.
But senators contend the light truck standards demonstrate the 
administration's lack of urgency about the need to improve 
fuel economy. 
Those standards boosted the fuel economy of light trucks from 
22.2 mpg to 24 mpg within four years and will also bring large 
pickups and SUVs into the program by 2011. 
Snowe called the increase "miniscule." 
"We are just nibbling at the margins in the most timid and 
reluctant and ineffective way," added Senator John Kerry, a 
Massachusetts Democrat. "You guys just don't excite the 
marketplace, you're not willing to challenge it." 
Several senators questioned why the administration is 
reluctant to embrace a specific goal for passenger cars 
"This is one of the most serious issues we face in terms of 
the energy crisis," said Senator Ted Stevens, an Alaska 
Republican. "The goals ought to be very firm." 
Stevens has introduced legislation to set a 40-mpg standard by 
2017, a concept Nason said could force NHTSA to develop a 
standard that limits consumer choice and interferes with the 
business plans of automakers. 
"It would be our preference to have the authority to reform 
the program over all," Nason said. "The problem that we have 
in doing a proposal is being hemmed in by specifics." 
The average fuel economy of the fleet of new cars and trucks 
sold in the U.S. in 2006 was lower than it was in 1986. 
Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, blasted Nason's 
position and said the administration had little interest in 
honestly tackling the issue. 
"For those who want to do nothing about fuel economy, you are 
the perfect spokesman," Boxer said, adding that the United 
States continues to cede leadership on the issue to other 
nations. 
The Chinese government is developing much stricter standards, 
Boxer said, a move that could have economic ramifications for 
U.S. automakers. 
"China, the worst leader on the environment ... may well say 
to American car companies 'gee if you don't modify, you won't 
be able to sell here,'" she said. 
Boxer and others also criticized the administration for 
failing to consider the benefits of reducing greenhouse gas 
emissions through higher fuel economy - U.S. cars and trucks 
alone produce more greenhouse gas emissions than every nation 
bar China and Russia. 
NHTSA calculated the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that 
would be reduced by the higher light truck standards, Nason 
said, but had difficulty "monetizing the benefit." 
"There is such a disparity in the scientific community about 
how to value carbon dioxide," she said. 
Snowe called the decision to choose a monetary benefit of zero 
"confounding." 
"That is a fundamental benefit," Snowe said.
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