As petrol prices continuing to rise, the Bush administration on Tuesday proposed new rules to compel vehicle manufacturers to make pickup trucks, minivans and some sport utility vehicles more fuel efficient while environmentalists said the plan would do little to wean the nation from its dependence on foreign oil, a CBS News/Associated Press report said.
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The plan, announced by the Department of Transportation in Atlanta, reportedly, demanded that, by 2008, manufacturers boost fuel efficiency on SUVs and light trucks by 6%. All automakers would have to comply fully by 2011.
“This is a plan that will save gas and result in less pain at the pump for motorists without sacrificing safety,” US transportation secretary Norman Mineta said, according to the report.
Mineta, speaking at news conferences in Atlanta and Los Angeles, reportedly said the programme was expected to save about 10 billion gallons of petrol over the life of vehicles built from 2008 through 2011.
But the CBS/AP report noted that environmentalists were not impressed, saying American drivers now use 11 billion gallons a month. The US currently consumes about 140 billion gallons of petrol per year, the report added, citing Energy Department statistics.
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By GlobalDataCBS/AP said the plan would not apply to the largest SUVs, such as the Hummer H2 – passenger cars, already required to maintain an average of 27.5 miles per [US, smaller than the Imperial] gallon, also would not be covered by the changes.
Environmental advocates reportedly said the plan failed to go far enough to reduce the nation’s dependence on imported oil while creating new loopholes that would weaken the requirements.
Passenger cars and light trucks, a vehicle category that includes pickups, minivans and SUVs, account for about 40% of the nation’s oil use, CBS/AP said.
“At a time when Americans are paying record prices for gas, the Bush administration has sided with its cronies in the auto industry and rejected real solutions,” Dan Becker, director of the Sierra Club’s global warming programme, said, according to the report.
According to CBS/AP, John Graham, director of the Office of Management and Budget’s office of information and regulatory affairs, countered that the plan was projected to save more fuel than any previous rule-making in the history of the US light-truck corporate average fuel economy (CAFÉ) programme.
The report noted that, under the current system, automakers must maintain an average of 21 mpg for light trucks and will have to meet 22.2 mpg for the 2007 model year. It represents an average of manufacturers’ entire fleet of light trucks.
The new system would divide light trucks into six categories based on size. Smaller vehicles would have to get better fuel economy than larger trucks, CBS/AP said.
The report added, however, that automakers could opt to comply with the old system to the end of 2010 or to meet the standards in the six categories. If they stayed with the old system, they would have to meet a 22.5 mpg average by 2008, 23.1 mpg in 2009 and 23.5 mpg by 2010.
CBS/AP said that, under the new attribute-based system, the standards would range from as high as 26.8 mpg in 2008 for smaller vehicles such as the Chrysler PT Cruiser and the Toyota RAV 4 to 20.4 mpg for large vehicles such as the Chevrolet Silverado and the Dodge Ram. By 2010, the range would increase to 27.8 mpg for smaller vehicles to 20.8 mpg for the largest. The system provides flexibility because automakers could earn credits for exceeding the minimum in certain categories and apply them to a category where they don’t meet the standard.
The CBS/AP report noted American automakers have cited a disadvantage against foreign competitors because sales of large SUVs, a major source of profits in recent years, must be offset by the sale of smaller models to comply with fuel economy standards.
The report said the proposal will be evaluated by the motor industry and interest groups during the next three months and must be finalised by April 2006 to take effect for 2008 model year vehicles.
