A push for cars to get better gas mileage

The confluence of skyrocketing gasoline prices, new reports on climate change, and the never-ending debate over US energy policy sharpens efforts to encourage - if not mandate - better gas mileage in the cars Americans drive.

New legislation is being introduced, and President Bush has asked Congress to give him the authority to increase passenger-car fuel economy standards. Many observers say he already has that authority, as have a succession of presidents since Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards were initially set 31 years ago.

"I would love to believe that President Bush has finally seen the light on this," says Daniel Becker, director of the global-warming program at the Sierra Club, a grass-roots environmental organization.

Like the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit environmental group of scientists and citizens, as well as other supporters of more rigorous CAFE standards, Mr. Becker asserts that the technology already exists to make all new vehicles average 40 miles per gallon within 10 years.

"Taking this step would save the average driver over $5,000 over the lifetime of their vehicle, even after accounting for the added cost of the fuel-saving technology," he says. "At the same time, raising fuel economy standards would save 4 million barrels of oil per day - an amount equal to what America currently imports from the entire Persian Gulf and could ever get out of the Arctic Refuge, combined."

Union of Concerned Scientists researcher David Friedman projects that driving a 40 m.p.g. car "would be the equivalent of offering a $600 annual tax break from reduced fuel costs."

Such figures are necessarily hypothetical, depending on a number of variables such as the cost of a barrel of oil. There also are political considerations: the safety of an SUV compared with a smaller hybrid, as well as jobs in the domestic auto industry, which has been hurting recently.

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta warned about a universal increase in fuel efficiency for all new cars. "Substantial increases in CAFE standards under the current single standard approach would increase fatalities on America's highways, raise healthcare costs, and reduce employment," he said in a recent letter to congressional leaders.

As with the new CAFE rule for light trucks introduced in March, the Bush administration prefers a "size-based" system, setting separate fuel economy targets for each vehicle based on its dimensions.

"Under a size-based system, automakers will still be able to build the cars consumers want, but those cars will have to be more fuel efficient across the board," Secretary Mineta told the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Thursday. "A size-based system ensures that all manufacturers are introducing fuel-saving technologies, not only the manufacturers of larger vehicles."

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