31.6 mpg fuel efficiency by 2015 achievable, Transportation chief says
23.04.2008 10:00
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- Source: toledoblade.com
WASHINGTON - 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 yesterday. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters outlined the plan on Earth Day, setting a schedule that was more aggressive than industry officials initially expected. The proposal is "an aggressive but achievable standard. I think we've got something that is going to significantly save fuel and help clean our air," she said. 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. The mileage target set for 2015 is 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 573 million tons over the life of the new vehicles built between 2011 and 2015. It will add an average of $650 per passenger car and $979 per truck to the cost of vehicles by 2015. None of the three vehicles made at the Toledo Jeep Assembly complex meets the federal standards. The 2008 Jeep Liberty, with an automatic transmission and four-wheel drive, is rated at 15 mpg in the city and 21 mpg on the highway; the Dodge Nitro is rated at 15 mpg in the city and 20 mpg on the highway; and the Jeep Wrangler and Wrangler unlimited are rated 15 mpg in the city and 19 mpg on the highway. To boost fuel economy in the locally made sport utility vehicles, analysts have said they would need to be outfitted with more fuel-efficient engines. In the meantime, production would likely have to be reduced on the Wrangler, Liberty, and Nitro, analysts said. The federal 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 would push production of more gas-electric hybrid cars and diesel-powered trucks and SUVs, as well as 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 proposes 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, and sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and vans must hit a target of 22.5 mpg. 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.
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