Fuel Efficiency Bill Moves Forward

The Senate Commerce, Science and Technology Committee approved a bill that would force automakers to increase the fuel efficiency of their vehicles, setting the stage for the first meaningful change to CAFE standards in decades.

The bill is expected to be popular with both parties given the changing climate towards foreign oil dependency and greenhouses gases. Both Democratic Senators from Michigan oppose the bill, with Carl Levin towing the Bush Administration's line of doing nothing now and hoping that research will lead to breakthroughs at some future point that will magically wean us from oil.

"I continue to believe that more progress can be made in reducing oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions if we focus our resources on leap-ahead technologies instead of forcing companies to make incremental improvements to meet an arbitrary standard set by the
Congress," said Levin.

Fuel cells cars may be a nice dream, but not at the expense of avoiding solutions that can be implemented today.

Here's a nifty fact about how much more power hungry U.S. drivers are:

About 70 percent of new vehicles purchased in the United States have six- or eight-cylinder engines. In Europe, which already has 35 mpg fleetwide standard, 89 percent of vehicles sold have four-cylinder engines, according to the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents U.S. automakers.*

The legislation also would give the president the power to punish oil companies who overcharge consumers for oil, so the oil lobby is also not happy.

Source:Michigan Live