The Administration today announced that it will raise fuel economy standards to 31.6 miles per gallon by 2015.

As the author of the ‘Ten-in-Ten Fuel Economy’ bill, which is now law, I’d like to commend the Department of Transportation for taking this step.

This is an historic shift in policy – and the first substantial increase in fuel efficiency in more than a generation.

There is no question in my mind that we’re in for a substantial period of very high gasoline prices. We’re already seeing record gas prices:
· Nationwide: $3.52
· California: $3.86
· San Francisco: $3.98
· Los Angeles: $3.84

And experts expect prices to go even higher.

So, we have to move much more aggressively towards improving fuel efficiency – and help bring relief to American consumers.

The fuel economy bill that Senator Snowe and I authored in the Senate, passed by the House and signed by the President in December 2007, requires that a standard must be met by 2020: a fleetwide average of at least 35 miles per gallon.

So, the 31.6 miles per gallon target gets us roughly 66 percent of the way towards achieving the goal by 2015, or within the first 5 years.

It’s now time for Detroit and the other automakers to get to work on building a new fleet of cleaner cars.

We know the technology is there – and now, we’re going to see these more fuel efficient cars on the road in just a few years.

Bottom line: this represents the first concrete action we are taking to combat global warming.

And it’s really great news to celebrate on Earth Day.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 3:34 pm and is filed under Politics, Energy/Environment .