Via: Autoblog
President Obama has recently announced an increase and standardization of the CAFE Standards for new vehicles. For those of you who think I may be talking about coffee the CAFE Standards are the minimum fuel economy standards automakers in the US must conform to, These changes are a big step forward, especially considering the utter lack of progress made over the last eight years.
These new standards apply more stringent fuel economy requirements and (of equal importance) these rules are to be standardized across Federal agencies (EPA and DOT) as well as being adopted by the individual states. Recently, California was involved in a court battle with the Federal government because California wanted more stringent emissions requirements than the Bush Administration (aka rich, white, oil magnates) would allow.
Unfortunately, these new regulations will only increase the CAFE by 5% each year until 2016 when cars will be required to average 42 MPG and light trucks will be required to average 26 MPG. While this is certainly a significant improvement, I would like to see more. I would like to see something in the range of 60 MPG and a mandatory minimum of 30 MPG. I think this is an extremely important part of weaning us from our dependence on foreign oil, not to mention the environmental significance.
In addition, I think that separate standards for passenger cars and light trucks is a serious flaw in the current regulations. The overwhelming majority of light trucks (which includes most SUVs) are used primarily to ferry passengers to and fro, just like a passenger car. I see no need for a separate standard for these vehicles. I understand that there are legitimate cases where a light truck or SUV may be required (contractors or other business uses) and I would not mind a separate standard for these, perhaps based upon a different licensing scheme (commercial vs. personal). Allow vehicles licensed for commercial use to be excluded from the passenger vehicle CAFE standard and instead fall under a commercial vehicle CAFE standard. This would allow anyone that needs an SUV or light truck to license it appropriately, perhaps even paying a higher licensing fee for the increased environmental costs associated with that vehicles operation. In California, this system is already in place with personal and commercial plates having different numbering schemes.
