in clean vehicles   Cars, Trucks, & Global Warming   Building a Greener SUV   UCS Report -- Drilling in Detroit

Congress passed Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards in 1975, in the wake of the energy crisis in the early 1970s. The standards required the auto industry to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles -- enough to meet an average of 27.5 miles per gallon (MPG) for cars and 20.7 MPG for "light trucks," which includes sport utility vehicles (SUVs), minivans, and pickups.

CAFE standards helped to reduce oil consumption and global warming gases, but those gains have been overtaken by the increasing number of miles driven and the explosion in sales of gas-guzzling light trucks (especially SUVs and minivans). To reduce fuel consumption and address global warming, CAFE standards must increase.

Fuel Economy and Global Warming

Increasing fuel efficiency in cars and light trucks provides significant economic and environmental benefits, such as decreasing pollution from oil refineries and oil distribution, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and saving America's drivers billions of dollars at the gas pump each year. Most importantly, reducing fuel consumption is the most effective way in the near term to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the chief global warming gas.

Closing the loophole for SUVs and light trucks alone would reduce the CO2 emissions by 240 million tons per year once fully phased in. Today a car that gets 27.5 mpg will emit 54 tons of CO2 over its lifetime. An SUV that gets 14 mpg will emit over 100 tons of CO2 over its lifetime.

Technological Solutions at Hand

The auto industry has the technology to increase fuel economy in cars and light trucks. It can do so at low cost, without sacrificing performance and while enhancing safety. In our recent report, Drilling in Detroit: Tapping Automaker Ingenuity to Build Safe and Efficient Automobiles, we found that a fleet that relies on continuously evolving conventional technologies could reach an average of more than 40 miles per gallon, nearly a 75 percent increase compared with today's fleet. In a second report, Greener SUVs: A Blueprint for Cleaner, More Efficient Light Trucks, we used affordable, existing technology to design an SUV that achieves 50 percent better mileage (28.4 mpg), pollutes 75 percent less, and has a lower total cost.

Higher MPG in Our Future

The CAFE law provides guidance to the DOT in considering higher CAFE standards. It requires the DOT to take into account technical feasibility, economic practicability, the effect of other federal motor-vehicle standards on fuel economy, and the need to conserve energy.

Updated July 2001