What You May Not Know About CAFE:

• CAFE has failed to reduce foreign oil imports.
  Despite the fact that vehicle fuel economy has improved markedly since 1975, the United States is even more dependent upon foreign oil today. That's because more Americans are driving, and driving farther, than ever before. In 1975, the United States imported 35 percent of its oil from foreign sources. In 2002, about 53 percent of the oil we consumed came from outside the United States.
• CAFE has hurt automotive safety.
  Not only has CAFE failed to deliver its intended benefits, studies by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that vehicle downsizing encouraged by CAFE is responsible for an estimated 2,000 deaths each year.

What's Next?

Raising CAFE standards, as some wish, ultimately will require manufacturers to focus their attention on meeting those new standards, diverting resources from the development of promising breakthrough technology such as hydrogen fuel cells. Automotive manufacturers are on the verge of greater availability and consumer acceptance of hybrid vehicles and the eventual replacement of the internal combustion engine with pollution-free fuel cells. Higher CAFE standards would force manufacturers to devote enormous resources to tiny, incremental improvements in fuel economy at the expense of the revolutionary research and development work that may someday completely remove oil and emissions from the automotive equation.

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