New CAFE standards

From the WSJ's Evening Wrap:

The U.S. Transportation Department imposed new fuel-economy standards on trucks, minivans and some SUVs, a move it said would cut consumers' gasoline bills, at a time when gas prices are at record highs. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said new calculation methods -- representing the biggest change to the fuel-efficiency regime in decades -- would encourage auto makers to build heavier vehicles, improving highway safety. But the new standards don't apply to cars or the biggest SUVs, such as the Hummer. And environmentalists said they were too lax to significantly cut gasoline costs or reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.

Despite what we think of CAFE standards, this is welcome news.

Update (8/25): My knee jerk reaction was that any fuel efficiency proposal must be a good thing. I'm a bit embarrassed now. Instead, let me say this: We don't like CAFE standards. More reasons why are here and here and here.

Comments

[The Oil Drum (profgoose)]

we're still trying to figure out how to do trackbacks with our new software...wanted to let you know that we linked to this post. ;)

[allen claxton]

The idea of revamping fuel economy standards so as to encourage larger vehicles, because that will lead to highway safety, seems ... bizarre and wrong-headed. Also, just for pedantry's sake, I believe the proposal gets rid of CAFE and replaces it with several standards for different classes of cars, like the split between cars and light trucks, but moreso.

[allen claxton]

Oops, my bad. The new standards only apply to the light truck category, which was previously ruled by a single standard. So, that's been splintered into 6 groups, but still doesn't cover the heaviest, hummer-size class of trucks. (According to the Washington Post.)

[Alex DiMenna]

the new standards do not go far enough, you can see this because there was little opposition from the automotive association about the new rules.Fleet Fuel Economy should be set somewhere around 46.5 MPG and any type of car or sedan should be made to comply with a 36 MPG standard eventually increasing over the years to 46.5 MPG. we as a society know that the automotive industry is capable of increasing fuel economy over the next 7 years more than just 3-4mpg. 10 billion gallons of gas saved over a lifetime of a vehicle is not that much and does nothing to cut fuel costs, or our addiction to oil since our country consumes way more than that each year. if we care about pollution, global warming and the overall costs all americans must pay for fuel, i think we would all support the strictest standards possible in order to create research and development of cleaner more economical vehicles, something that wont be acheived with the new CAFE standards.