A sweeping fuel economy proposal unveiled on Tuesday by the Bush administration – that would save consumers $US800 million to $1.3 billion over nearly two decades – conflicts with air quality rules passed by California, the New York Times (NYT) said on Thursday.
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Noting that the administration supports legal efforts by automakers to turn back the rules, which sharply curb tailpipe emissions of global-warming gases, the paper said that California’s rules would save far more at the pump for the state’s residents than the White House plan because such emissions are related to how much petrol a vehicle uses.
The New York Times added that would also be the case in states in the northeast and northwest that follow, or plan to follow, California’s car rules. For California alone, the state projects annual net petrol savings of more than $1 billion by early next decade.
According to the report, the competing federal and state proposals use similarly low projections for petrol prices – just over $1.50 [per US gallon] in the administration’s proposal – that environmentalists say woefully understate the potential benefits of fuel efficiency.
The New York Times said the administration’s proposal is aimed at model year 2008-to-2011 light duty trucks, a category that includes sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and minivans – the administration projects 10 billion gallons of petrol savings over nearly two decades, about what is consumed in 25 days.
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By GlobalDataThe plan reportedly aims to increase the fuel efficiency of light trucks sold nation-wide to 24 miles per gallon in 2011 models from 21.2 mpg today.
But the New York Times said how much it would actually increase efficiency is hard to say because of the plan’s structure, which could encourage production of larger, less fuel-efficient vehicles.
By contrast, the newspaper said, California’s emissions regulation would effectively force automakers to have a combined fuel economy for cars and trucks of about 33 mpg by the 2016 model year and save 1.7 billion gallons of petrol in California alone in just five years, according to the state’s Air Resources Board’s projections.
The New York Times said the California plan faces an uphill battle, however, and is being challenged in court by automakers, while the administration’s new fuel economy proposal says it would interfere with its own regulatory authority. The administration’s vision for the American automobile is a far more likely regulatory future, the paper suggested.
The New York Times said the White House plan is intended to help the struggling domestic automakers, General Motors and Ford which could use the help – Moody’s reportedly cut the debt rating of both companies to junk on Wednesday.
On the other hand, the paper added, some analysts and environmentalists say lax fuel economy regulations in the past have not helped Ford and GM because they have permitted the companies to become largely dependent on sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, which have shown weakness as petrol prices have risen.
The New York Times said that critics see the new system as potentially ripe for exploitation, because automakers have shown they can be extremely creative in shifting between lines in the sand drawn by the government.
When the current regulatory system was created three decades ago, 80% of the vehicles automakers produced were cars. Today, more than half are light trucks, partly a result of the category’s lesser fuel requirements, the paper added.
“No one could have imagined 30 years ago that vehicles categorized as trucks would be the most common passenger vehicles on the road today,” David Friedman, a senior analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told the New York Times, adding: “It’s amazing what the auto companies can do. They have found lots of innovative ways of meeting the letter, but beating the spirit, of regulations.”
The paper noted that the proposed extra categories for light trucks could open more doors for manipulation. For instance, Ford could add less than an inch to the dimensions of its Explorer Sport Trac and move it from a class with a fuel target of 24.5 mpg to one with 23.3 in 2011 models.
Environment groups pan government fuel economy proposals
