Vehicle Mileage in U.S. Said to Be Set at 27.3 MPG for 2011
bloomberg.com
March 27 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. will announce a U.S. fuel- economy requirement of 27.3 miles per gallon for 2011 cars and light trucks, an increase of 2 mpg, as early as today, an Obama administration official said.
The standard for cars will average 30.2 mpg, up from 27.5 currently, and 24.1 for light trucks, up from 23.1 mpg for 2009 models, according to the official, who declined to be identified because the targets haven’t been announced publicly. The guidelines are part of a 2007 law intended to curb emissions and fuel use.
The change, being put in place as General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC face possible bankruptcy, isn’t as aggressive as the 27.8 mpg target that President George W. Bush proposed in April 2008. Bush decided to delay the rule before he left office, and it was never implemented.
President Barack Obama’s administration has a March 31 deadline for setting the standard, giving the industry about 18 months to prepare its 2011 models. The administration is working on more stringent requirements for subsequent years, the Obama official said.
The new rule is the first step in implementing a December 2007 law that called for vehicles to meet a 35 mpg standard by 2020 models, which would be a 40 percent increase from 2008 levels, according to Bush’s proposal last April.
“The bad news is that the 27.3 mpg standard means that they’ll have to make up for it in future years,” said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign, a group in Washington that works for environmentally “clean” cars. “The goods news is that they have promised that they will.”
The administration said it “really didn’t have much time” to craft a 2011 standard, according to Becker. “The law says they had to put it out” by March 31, he said.
Certainty and Consistency Needed
Setting the 2011 standard “is an important first step,” David McCurdy, president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said in a statement. “It is now important that the Department of Transportation provide automakers with the certainty and consistency needed” for 2012 and beyond.
The Alliance represents automakers including GM, Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp.
The new mileage standard marks the first increase for cars since the mid-1980s, as the Transportation Department lacked authority to change it until the 2007 law. The administration already had authority to raise the light-truck standard, which is set to climb to 23.5 for 2010 models.
The law also altered the way fuel economy was determined, using guidelines based on size, weight and other characteristics for each type of vehicle in an automaker’s product line rather than setting a single standard for each company’s fleet.
The Bush administration said Jan. 7 it was delaying its decision on the 2011 standard until after Obama took office. “Financial difficulties” in the auto industry required a more thorough review, the Transportation Department said at the time.
Becker said he obtained Bush administration draft documents suggesting Bush was considering a reduction in the 27.8 mpg standard proposed in April to the same 27.3 level Obama is proposing.
To contact the reporters on this story: John Hughes in Washington at jhughes5@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: March 27, 2009 00:01 EDT |
