Anyone who doubts that the United States is lagging when it comes to upping the fuel economy standards for cars should look across the ocean – to China. With a growing population and burgeoning economy, oil consumption is growing rapidly in China, the world’s second largest car market. This prompted the State Council, the country’s cabinet, to call for fuel-efficiency standards.

Though the standards are not considered particularly stringent by Chinese energy experts, they are stricter than U.S. standards, which haven’t been updated in more than two decades, despite efforts to do so by Maine’s congressional delegation.

The same week that China announced its new standards, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its 2005 fuel economy guide. The 10 most fuel-efficient cars are imports, with eight coming from Japan and two from Germany. The worst performers were typically made in America.

In China, nearly 5 million barrels of oil are consumed per day, according to 2002 figures from the Energy Information Administration. By contrast, the United States consumes more than 19 million barrels a day. When the population of each country is taken into consideration, the difference is more staggering. In China, slightly less than

4 barrels of oil are consumed daily per 1,000 people. In the United States, daily oil consumption per 1,000 people is nearly 68 barrels.

If the Chinese government has decided that improving automobile fuel efficiency is necessary to reduce their growing oil consumption, such a conclusion should have been reached here a long time ago. It hasn’t been.

The Chinese standards require that cars and trucks get between 19 and 38 miles per gallon by 2005 and between 21 and 43 miles per gallon by 2005. Only 79 percent of new U.S. cars on the market and 27 percent of light trucks meet China’s 2005 standard. Only 19 percent of U.S. cars and 14 percent of trucks would meet the 2008 standard. America’s best-selling vehicle for 22 years, Ford’s F-150 pickup gets an average of 16 miles per gallon and would not meet either standard.

The U.S. standards are calculated based on the average fuel consumption of the entire fleet sold by an automaker (so one hybrid model can lower the entire fleet average). Under the Chinese system, each model sold must meet the standards.

Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins have repeatedly introduced a bill that would not just add a mile or two a gallon to SUV and light truck performance, as the president’s plan did over three years. They would include those large vehicles in the standard for cars by demanding increases in fuel performance beginning when the president’s plan ends,

in 2008, and achieving 27.5 mpg by 2011. The estimated savings from the Senate plan, when fully in place, would equal 1 million barrels of oil a day.

Their plan failed in favor of the president’s small increase. The result is continued reliance on imported oil and, as oil prices show no sign of dropping, continued expensive fill-ups for American drivers.