Pitiful Plan for Fuel Economy | Green Energy News

August 21, 2005 – Vol.10 No.22

PITIFUL PLAN FOR FUEL ECONOMY.

Imagine a light truck - a pick-up truck - that was built of lightweight composite materials yet was stronger and tougher than steel. The truck was full-sized like a Ford F-150 and had a hybrid-electric drive, or perhaps a clean diesel. Instead of 16-20 miles per gallon it got 30 -35. It’s possible. It would sell like hotcakes and drivers would reap the benefits of saved fuel costs in a era when gasoline and diesel hover near $3 per gallon.

Detroit won’t build a high-efficiency light truck until it’s told to do so. With the new fuel economy standards for light trucks offered by the U.S. government - now open for public comment - they won’t be told to do so for years.

Under the proposal by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) the average fuel economy for light trucks (which includes, SUVs and minivans) will increase, on average, to 23.5 miles per gallon by 2011 up from 22.2 miles per gallon by 2007.

Not much, and the average will be hard to determine.

The new ruling will, if enacted as written, create six categories of vehicles based on size. With the exception of the largest, like a Hummer, all have to get better gasoline fuel economy - but only by a fraction. Further, and equally distressing, the six categories will allow manufacturers to cheat. That is, a small change in dimension could put the same vehicle in the next larger size category where lesser fuel economy is allowed.

Generally the NHTSA ruling won’t help out consumers or truck-using businesses to reduce fuel expenses. The new ruling won’t help the U.S. reduce its dependence on imported oil, nor reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And in the long run it won’t help out the shrinking U.S. automobile industry that continues to lose out to foreign manufacturers.

For the ruling visit NHTSA at http://www.nhtsa.gov/ and to make your comment visit the Department of Transportation Docket Management System at http://dms.dot.gov (Look for docket number NHSTA2005-22144 . Keep yours thoughtful.)

For a good take on the new ruling read Comments on Proposed Fuel Economy Standards: NHTSA Fiddles While Gasoline Burns from the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) at http://aceee.org/