Cars Will Use Less Fuel, Senate Assures  

[June 23, 2007]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- The cars, SUVS and pickups people will buy in the years ahead are likely to use less fuel, and many will rely on ethanol or household electricity instead of gasoline. The energy legislation pushed through the Senate this week provides a roadmap to the future, demanding higher automobile fuel economy, mandating huge increases in ethanol as a motor fuel and supporting more research into building "plug-in" hybrid-electric vehicles.

While Senate Republicans complained that the bill does nothing to increase domestic oil production, Democrats said that's because the nation must move energy policy away from its heavy reliance on oil.

The House is preparing its own version.

The Senate bill requires automakers to increase fuel economy to 35 miles per gallon, about a 40 percent increase over what cars, SUVs and small trucks are required to achieve now. It would lump all the vehicles under a single regulation, but also give manufacturers flexibility so large SUVs wouldn't have to meet the same requirements as smaller cars.

It requires a yearly increase of ethanol production to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022, a sevenfold increase from today. By 2015 half of the new vehicles offered to buyers _ as many as 10 million _ will have to be capable of running on 85 percent ethanol, biodiesel or some other alternative energy source.

And for the first time, the president must find ways to cut oil demand by 20 percent of what it is expected to be in 2017 _ a target President Bush has embraced _ and attain further reductions after that. Gasoline demand is expected to grow 13 percent to 261 billion gallons a year by 2017 without some fuel saving measures.

But will auto showrooms provide the same selection of vehicles? Will they be as big, as powerful, as safe?

"I would expect them to look a lot like they do today, the same size, the same acceleration and the same or even better safety," says David Friedman, director of the clean vehicles program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

He maintains they will have better technology, better engines, more efficient transmissions and stronger aluminum bodies. They'll cost a little more but use much less gasoline.

"The goal is to replace fossil fuels with alternative fuels and use conservation," said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who was involved in the discussions on many of the auto fuel economy and motor fuel issues that ended up in the bill.

What has changed from a few years ago, she said, is there no longer is "a fear factor that you're going to be in itty bitty cars" if the government requires automakers to make more fuel efficient vehicles.

In addition to making conventional cars more fuel efficient, the bill seeks to boost research into use of lithium-ion batteries _ like those used in laptop computers and cameras _ in vehicles.

Should ways be found to make them more durable in a vehicle environment, cars could be plugged into an electric socket at home, relying only rarely on gasoline, says Friedman. Some studies have estimated the fuel cost _ mostly the cost of electricity and a small amount of gasoline _ would be equivalent to about $1 a gallon, said Cantwell.

Automakers, lobbying hard against the fuel economy provision in the Senate bill, expressed continued concern Friday about their ability to meet the new requirements without changing the mix of cars they will be able to provide in the showrooms of 2020.

"There's no way you can get those numbers without a dramatic shift in consumer choice," insisted Mark LaNeve, General Motors' vice president of North America sales, service and marketing. "We don't know how it's attainable."

Eric Ridenour, chief operating officer at Chrysler Group, where three of every four vehicles are built on truck frames, said the company will have to decide whether to keep selling some of its larger vehicles.

"Clearly the larger family-sized vehicles will be the ones that will be most at risk," said Ridenour. "The end result will be lighter, smaller vehicles in general." He envisioned generally smaller cars and more of them running on diesel.

Ford Motor Co. is committed to increasing auto fuel economy, said Alan Mulally, the company's chief executive. "It's what customers want. It's what they value."

But is it possible technically to meet the proposed 35 mpg fleet requirements even with a new way of calculating compliance taking into account vehicles size?

"That's the only debate," said Mulally on Friday at a Ford assembly plant in Chicago where the company was introducing its new Taurus model, one that travels 28 mpg on the open road.

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AP reporters David Carpenter in Chicago and Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this story.

[Associated Press]