Bush Plan For 31 MPG Fuel Standard By 2015

Fleetwide Average Efficiency For New Cars More Aggressive Than Energy Law Requires

(AP)  The nation's fleet of new cars and trucks will be required to achieve 31.6 miles per gallon by 2015, the Bush administration said Tuesday.

Transportation Department Secretary Mary Peters outlined the plan on Earth Day, setting a schedule that was more aggressive than initially expected by industry officials.

Peters said the proposal was "an aggressive but achievable standard. I think we've got something that is going to significantly save fuel and help clean our air."

The plan responds to a new energy law pushed by Congress and signed by President Bush that requires the nation's new cars and trucks, taken as a collective average, to meet 35 mpg by 2020.

New cars and trucks will have to meet a fleetwide average of 31.6 mpg by 2015, or about a 4.5 percent annual increase from 2011 to 2015.

The fleetwide average doesn't mean that all vehicles have to achieve the target efficiency - larger vehicles will not be as fuel efficient as smaller ones - only that collectively passenger vehicles average that figure.

The plan is expected to save 54.7 billion gallons of oil and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 521 million metric tons over the life of the new vehicles built between 2011-2015. It will add an average cost of $650 per passenger car and $979 per truck by 2015.

The proposal is expected to be finalized by the end of President Bush's term in office.

Automakers opposed increases to the regulations in previous years, but supported a compromise version of the legislation in Congress amid rising gasoline prices and concerns about global warming.

The regulations would require the industry to implement more than half of the fuel-efficiency requirements by 2015 and push them to build more gas-electric hybrid cars, diesel-powered trucks and SUVs and advances such as plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.

"These numbers are very challenging. They will stretch the industry to innovate in ways they haven't had to do in the past and will continue to set us on a course to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new autos," said Charles Territo, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp., Ford Motor Co. and others.

Amid rising gasoline prices and concerns of global warming, Congress sought the tougher standards, requiring the nation's fleet of new vehicles to increase its efficiency by 10 mpg from its current average of 25 mpg, or a 40 percent increase.

The new law represented the first major changes to the auto mileage rules in three decades.

The fleet of new passenger cars is currently required to meet a 27.5 mpg average, while sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and vans must hit a target of 22.5 mpg.

Members of Congress and environmental groups have pushed for higher standards, arguing that requiring vehicles to become more efficient would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the nation's dependence upon imported oil.

Democrats have said the fuel economy requirements will save motorists $700 to $1,000 a year in fuel costs and reduce oil demand by 1.1 million barrels a day when the more fuel-efficient vehicles are in wide use on the road.

[michellem99-2009]

NO BODY..An american Can''t afford this/that..Rents go higher as every thing else..We have to take care what we have..it is all talk. 120 DOLLARS A BARREL OR CLOSE TO TO IT..Good God Allnighty. Maybe the rich..

[Netterz]

What a wonderful idea....but, how many people in this crappy economy will be able to afford them? The ecomomy is wrecking hundreds of lives daily. My friends and neighbors are losing there homes, there jobs, there lives. So great, the only cars people will be able to afford, are the $5K cars, that we run into the ground until they die, rusting off the frame, with all the service lights blazing. Gas goes up, everything else goes up, because it takes gas to transport it, and the price of American made cars will be out of reach for most people. But here American...take your $300 rebate check, and fill your tank up twice.

[mexinvasion]

Something has to change. Quick. Gas prices are wrecking the economy. What if engine power were reduced enough that the maximum speed of a car was 75mph. Think of that. The engine uses so little gasoline that it takes 30 seconds to get the car up to 75 and it won''t go any faster. Then we might be able to get 50 miles per gallon. We''d have to make some adjustment to our expectations on the road. But this bit about people having to stop contributing to their retirement plans in order to afford gasoline just isnt going to fly.

[sjc_1]

"Sitting in traffic and at stop lights, I figure a good portion of the gas I buy is just being wasted anyway."

Hybrid cars like the Prius offer start/stop and EV capability that saves lots of fuel in traffic.

[sjc_1]

We are suppose to forget all the delays and foot dragging that Bush and the Republican majority Congress did for 4 years from 2003-2006. Now they are all for the environment and fuel economy.

After the VP met with all the oil guys in his "task force" to map out Iraq, he stated that conservation was a personal virtue and had no place in energy policy. In some Orwellian nightmare we are all suppose to forget that all that ever happened.

[rf35]

Hey, boneheads, if you think your car''''s fuel mileage is too low, BUY A CAR THAT GETS HIGHER MILEAGE!

Posted by JT_Lancer at 10:59 AM : Apr 23, 2008


Love to. Please send me 25,000 to pay off my current vehicle. Post your e-mail and I''ll give you the address to send the money.

[jt_lancer]

Hey, boneheads, if you think your car''s fuel mileage is too low, BUY A CAR THAT GETS HIGHER MILEAGE!

There are plenty of cars on the market that get better than 30 mpg already. The only reason that average gas mileage for cars is still low is because oil has been relatively cheap for a long time and consumers have chosen luxury over fuel expenses.

With gas prices likely to stay high for a long time to come, consumers will nautrally seek cars that get better mileage.

Minimum mileage idiocy is a page out of the socialist Democrat playbook, and the Repubs are pandering right along with them.

As I have said before, there is little real difference between Repubs and Dems.

[timdgrim]

By 2015 gas will be $6.00 a gallon. So this is going to help a whole lot.

[ejgcs]

Living in Florida, I gave up trying to calculate my MPG. Sitting in traffic and at stop lights, I figure a good portion of the gas I buy is just being wasted anyway. Until DOT comes up with a plan to keep cars moving instead of stopping them every block or two, no amount of "fuel efficiency" is going to make that much of a difference.

[watcher269-2009]

Everyone knows that Bushit is dyslexic - what he REALLY meant to say is the his goals for Fuel economy for cars by 2015 is 13.6 miles to the gallon NOT 31.6.

[enlightenu]

later in the day he made a commitment to secure Basra by 2020

[ranger1948]

I think Bush should be looking for a country where he can live safely after leaving office. I have never seen a president more hated than him.

[nearl4511]

Oh Oh. Wait, I have heard the President mispoke today......

He is really calling for vehicles NATIONWIDE to achieve 20 MPG by 2015!

OK. I''m done comment about this maroon.

[nearl4511]

You know, I was never a Bush fan, but I have been hesitant to comment on his Presidency of late...instead opting to keep silent and just ride the time out.

However, is this not the most inept proposal that I have ever heard any President make in my life? Why, yes it is.

Yeah GO George! Show then you really are an environmentalist! My hero! (sarcasm [way] off).

Seriously. What a dolt. Any chance we can just get the major news media to ignore this A s s for the next 9 months?

[notmygop]

LAME! Amazing how a lot of other countries are well past that benchmark and yet doing by 2015 here will be "challenging." Challenging in that we still like to drive large gas guzzlers and still think low gas prices are our birthright.

[element51]

veteran72....Funny. Bush really does look like a monkey phuckin a football.

[newz4i]

Of course Bush will push for 31 mpg''s.

Higher is less profit for his business empire - oil.

Of course Bush lead the way with ethanol. It mixes with his product - oil.

Vote for the Bush/McCain ticket and you''ll get 31 mpg''s.

Don''t vote for the Bush/McCain ticket, and, yeah, we may have a chance of getting 150 mpg''s.

[airport1207]

Will you do something about high oil price problem at first?

[ken1dall]

Gee, 31 MPG. Why not 150 MPG. What a bunch of idiots!!! Howsabout capping mortgage payments at 500.00 a month, and maybe providing cold beers at 4:30 PM.........

[ontheleft]

That''s funny. Just 3 or 4 years ago Bush said he would not support stricter fuel economy standards because he didn''t want to ''micromanage'' the car industry.

Who expects an oil man to do anything but look out for the interests of oil companies?