Befitting of Earth Day, the U.S. Transportation Department will release proposed increases in fuel economy standards to ensure that automakers are on pace to meet the 35 mpg standard by 2020. The new proposal is expected to be more aggressive than the one originally laid out last December by Congress.
The new proposal will require passenger cars to average 35.7 mpg and light trucks to average 28.6 mpg by 2015, according to The Detroit News. Those numbers work out to a 31.8 mpg fleet average by 2015, or a 4.6 percent improvement each year — well above the originally scheduled 4 percent increase per year.
The fleet average in 2007 was 26.7.
The Bush administration plans to sign off on the new proposal before the next president takes office.
But to ease automakers into the new requirements, the proposal also includes credit transfer and trading systems. These systems would allow automakers to use credits earned from exceeding passenger car standards to cover the difference in light trucks averages. They would also allow less efficient automakers to buy credits from more efficient car makers.
Despite the sharp increases, automakers aren’t expected to oppose the new requirements. However, automakers will be looking for the government’s help in blocking 16 states from enacting their own standards, which would see fuel economy standards spike to 43.7 mpg by 2016.
