May 10, 2001

Today, U.S. Representatives Jay Inslee, John W. Olver (D-MA), Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), and Nancy Johnson (R-CT) introduced legislation that would raise Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for Sport-Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and light trucks.

Said Inslee, "Increasing the miles per gallon of our SUVs will certainly help alleviate some of the demand, and therefore lower the prices, of gasoline. Implementing higher CAFE standards would be much more prudent and effective than launching a campaign to drill in our Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or move in a backward direction on other environmental protections."

SUVs are currently exempt from the CAFE standards that apply to other passenger vehicles.  The bill would require SUVs to meet current CAFE standards for cars by 2007, with several incremental steps toward better fuel economy.  SUVs must get 22.5 miles per gallon by 2002, 25 miles per gallon by 2005, and 27.5 miles per gallon by 2007.   In addition, it raises the vehicle weight threshold to qualify for CAFE from 8,500 pounds to 10,000 pounds, and requires that all new vehicles purchased by the federal government get six miles per gallon higher than the average for that class.

CAFE standards were put in place in 1975, but light duty trucks were put in a separate category from passenger cars.  With the growth in sales of SUVs, which are used primarily as passenger vehicles, average fuel economy for U.S. cars is the lowest it has been in twenty years.  It is estimated that raising CAFE standards for SUVs would save one million barrels of oil a day and would reduce U.S. oil imports by ten percent.   Closing the SUV loophole would also prevent over 200 million tons of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, from entering the atmosphere each year.

Other original co-sponsors to the legislation include Congressman Mark Udall (D-CO), Congressman Jim Greenwood (R-PA), and Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-CA).