Squeeze more mpg from Detroit
President Barack Obama is proposing manufacturer-fleet standards of 56 mpg by 2025 (May 19, 2009). Credit: GETTY IMAGES
Only three years after their near-death experience in the financial crisis, American car companies face yet another challenge: drastically increasing the fuel efficiency of their vehicles. They won't do it on their own, so now the Obama administration is proposing to require manufacturers' fleets of new passenger cars and light trucks to average 56.2 miles per gallon by 2025. That's roughly double the current standard.
Despite the pushback from automakers, who are trying to negotiate a more lenient standard, the administration's goal is feasible and long overdue. Europe, China and Japan have already set similar mileage standards and emissions regulations, leading to more fuel-efficient cars -- European vehicles are projected to average 60 mpg by the end of the decade. And the technology to improve efficiency already exists, ranging from lighter materials and more aerodynamic frames to smarter engines and more efficient transmissions.
Higher auto-mileage standards could accomplish all kinds of good. They would slash air pollution and combat global warming. And they would reduce the country's dependence on oil, two-thirds of which is imported -- often from regimes that are unstable, tyrannical or both.
Critics argue that the proposal will cost billions of dollars and eliminate jobs -- the same arguments made when the government proposed mandating seat belts and emissions standards, both of which turned out just fine. Besides, doing nothing may also cost billions and eliminate jobs, because that's what happens when you keep importing oil and when your competitors keep making thriftier cars.
Though consumers may at first feel some pain, sticker prices should fall as automakers ramp up production of the fuel-efficient cars, and the additional costs are expected to be offset over time by savings on gasoline, according to a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. For Detroit, the mandate may be just the spark needed to compete against foreign rivals whose fuel efficiency has far surpassed that of the American-made vehicles.
Of course, a serious across-the-board tax on fossil fuels would generate the consumer demand to call forth more fuel-efficient cars without the proposed new rules. It also would let consumers and businesses decide for themselves how best to conserve in the most efficient possible way. But such a tax is a perennial nonstarter politically, so higher emission standards are the next best thing. hN
