Automakers Balk At New Fuel Bill; Compromise Expected

Anthony Fontanelle
May 7, 2007

Automakers described as ‘unattainable’ the revised fuel economy proposal unveiled last Friday by a Senate committee chairman. The new bill, when approved, would force the automakers to significantly increase the fuel economy standards to a fleetwide average of 28.5 miles per gallon by 2015 and 35 mpg by the year 2020, with four percent increases every year after that.

The bill, as proposed by U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, the chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Alaska's Ted Stevens, the committee's ranking Republican, is expected to entertain amendments to respond to the automakers’ clamor. The bill will now be facing a vote in committee on whether to deliver the same to the full Senate.

Sen. Inouye said that many senate staffs had worked for 10 days to reach a compromise bill that automakers could accept. "None of us here want to put our domestic automakers out of business," Inouye said. "You will find most of your concerns have been addressed."

Automakers said last Friday that the proposal was about as bad as they could have imagined. Since the proposal of the bill, criticism has never come to a halt. The