If the United States hopes to secure its energy future and reduce its reliance on imported oil, it must stop being a gas hog on the road.
Currently, the United States consumes 22 percent of the world’s oil, with roughly half of that needed to produce motor fuels for cars and trucks. This wasteful consumption of fossil fuels is costly to our economy and dangerous for public health and the environment. To chart a new course, we must build smarter communities and transit systems and drive cleaner and more efficient vehicles.
On Thursday, the Obama administration took a step in that direction by adopting new standards for automobile fuel economy and greenhouse emissions. The standards mirror those adopted by California in 2004 that were fought fiercely, and unsuccessfully, by the auto industry.
These new federal standards call for new vehicles to average 35.5 miles per gallon in 2016, up nearly 10 mpg from the current average. If implemented and not sidetracked by Congress, these standards could save 11.6 billion gallons of gasoline annually starting in 2016, and reduce greenhouse pollution by 108 million metric tons yearly.
Like the California rules, the federal ones are sparking controversy. Some auto dealers complain the regulation will increase the price of new cars, and they will.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates the rules will cost consumers $434 extra per vehicle in the 2012 model year and $926 per vehicle by 2016. But car owners would save more than $3,000 over the lives of their vehicles through better gas mileage. Collectively, California consumers will save $4 billion at the pump annually, according to an analysis this week by the nonprofit group, Environment California.
This cleaner future is far from a sure thing. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is seeking to overturn the EPA’s finding that global warming pollutants threaten human health, the basis for the new standards. Some Democrats and Republicans in the House are pushing similar measures. Congress will have to be resolute to put the gas hogs on a diet.