A Brief Overview of the New Fuel Efficiency Standards
Yesterday, President Obama announced his Administration’s plans to increase fuel efficiency in the U.S. and help the country lessen its dependence on foreign oil. The standards begin with model year 2012 vehicles and by 2016, we should be seeing an average fuel economy of 35.5 mpg.
This standard has really caused an uproar, despite its support from the auto industry, state Governors of all political persuasions, and others in the industry. This morning, a segment of The Diane Rehm Show on NPR focused on this new standard and there is some concern about the safety of the vehicles, as the overall fleet of cars gets smaller, the safety concerns go up.
In addition to the conversations today on NPR, yesterday many Twitter conversations were dominated by the fuel efficiency standards. The same argument was made – cars will get smaller and be more dangerous.
My impression of the Twitter discussion is it was a partisan discussion and those on the right feel that this is a bad direction for the U.S. to take while those on the left think that 35.5 mpg isn’t enough.
I’ll keep my personal opinion to myself but I’d love to hear what the readers of The Green Motorist think. Is this standard sufficient? Are we potentially putting our lives in danger by reducing the size of the fleet?
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In Europe they have cars that get 50 miles per gallon. Thirty Five gallons sounds like too little, too late (otherwise known as chump change). As usual, we’re starting off behind the gate and will never get wise to the fact that gasoline is going to get much more expensive and we better have really, really high fuel efficiency to offset the cost. Otherwise our whole economy (or what’s left of it) will finish grinding to a halt.
Hi Marta,
One of the guests on The Diane Rehm Show I mentioned specifically discusses the Ford Fiesta and how it will likely be built here in the U.S. soon. The concern was that if people drive Fiestas and get into an accident with an H2, then that is bad news for the family in the Fiesta.
Although I’ve never been to Europe, I’m pretty sure that the mass of SUVs that we see here on the roads in the States isn’t seen there. So the H2/Fiesta accident doesn’t hold weight in Europe but is being used as the basis for arguments against the standard here in the U.S.
I have an easy solution for that and once gas prices rise to the level they were last summer, the solution will begin to work itself out - less SUVs on the road = less safety concern. *wink*
Thank you for your comment.
Warmly,
Melissa