WASHINGTON (July 17, 2001) — The House Energy and Commerce Committee is preparing to consider a Bush administration energy package that among other things would raise the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard for sport-utility vehicles by one mile per gallon.
Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin, R-Texas, and ranking Democrat John Dingell, D-Mich., said the change will save 5 billion gallons of gasoline over the next six years. But Reps. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said they will fight to get the CAFE standard raised to a 40-mpg fleet average by 2017. Mr. Markey tried but failed to get the 40-mpg standard approved in subcommittee.
The current CAFE standard is 20.7 mpg for SUVs and light trucks, 27.5 mpg for cars. The House bill also would ban the manufacture, sale and transport of diesel fuel for commercial vehicles that contains more than 15 parts per million of sulfur.