The nation's fleet of new cars and trucks will
be required to achieve 31.6 miles per gallon by 2015, The
Associated Press has learned.
Transportation Department Secretary Mary Peters was outlining
the plan on Earth Day, setting a schedule that was more aggressive
than initially expected by industry officials.
The plan responds to a new energy law pushed by Congress and
signed by President Bush that requires the fleetwide average of new
cars and trucks to meet 35 mpg by 2020.
New cars and trucks will have to meet a fleetwide average of
31.6 mpg by 2015, said a government official familiar with the
proposal. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was
not authorized to speak about the plan, which will set standards
from 2011 to 2015.
Under the plan, the fleet of new vehicles will be required to
achieve 27.8 mpg by 2011, with passenger cars achieving 31.2 mpg
and pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and vans reaching 25 mpg
by that year. By 2015, the efficiency of cars will be required to
meet 35.7 mpg while the fleet of trucks would need to achieve 28.6
mpg.
The plan is expected to save $54.7 billion gallons of oil 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 official said.
Transportation Department officials declined to comment on the
proposal, which is expected to be finalized by the end of the Bush
administration.
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.