Some Consumer Advocates want 45 mpg Standard by 2020

Think 35.5 mpg isn’t enough? So do some consumer advocates, who want the Obama administration to raise Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards to 45 mpg by 2020.

Currently, CAFE standards are set to reach 35.5 mpg in 2016, 40 percent higher than today’s standard. So far, proposed standards don’t extend farther than 2016, which troubles some consumer groups that want standards set until 2020. The group proposes to further raise fuel economy requirements to 45 mpg by 2020, claiming that technologies already available will allow automakers to reach the standard.

“We want to make sure we don’t just rest on the 2016 numbers and that we’re prepared today, and get the industry to prepare, to move substantially beyond 2016,” Jack Gillis, a spokesman for Consumer Federation of America and author of “The Car Book,” told Automotive News.

With the new standards coming up rather quickly for automakers, the consumer groups aren’t the only ones that feel standards should be laid out farther into the future.

“We hope that once this rulemaking is finalized, NHTSA and EPA will begin the process of setting standards for future years,” said Charles Territo, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a group that lobbies for 11 domestic and foreign automakers. That view is also shared by the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, which represents 13 automakers.

Another aspect of future CAFE standards the Consumer Federation wants changed is the party that sets them. CAFE standards are currently a joint effort between the EPA and the NHTSA. The Consumer Federation, however, wants to give all fuel efficiency authority solely to the EPA. According to the Consumer Federation, the NHTSA has been too easily influenced by car companies in previous years.

This argument for future standards is surely just an opening statement on the matter from the consumer groups. A debate and planning for the future standards will likely ensue once the proposed 2016 CAFE standards are finalized.

Source: Automotive News