CAFE DELAY

For a leader who frowns on analysis and scientific reviews, President Bush is oddly eager to deeply analyze any issue related to climate change. Last week, the president announced that several department heads will examine raising fuel economy standards. By asking for rules by the end of his administration, the president made it clear he will do nothing to require cars to use less gasoline. Such a delay is unnecessary.

President Bush’s inaction reiterates that it is up to Congress to enact tougher standards. Fortunately, lawmakers will consider numerous bills, including ones sponsored by Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.

During a Rose Garden press conference, President Bush said he had asked the heads of the Energy, Agriculture and Transportation departments and the Environmental Protection Agency to develop regulations to reduce gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next decade, a goal the president outlined in his State of the Union address. He also called for increasing fuel economy standards by 4 percent a year for the next decade.

Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA had the authority to reduce tailpipe emissions. One way to do this is for vehicles to use less gasoline per mile. As for what the standard should be, the president said the departments need to work together because “this is a complicated legal and technical matter.”

The National Academy of Sciences, however, determined it wasn’t that complicated and that current technology allowed for large increases in fuel economy. A 2002 report found that fuel economy could be increased by 50 percent, while maintaining vehicle size and performance and improving safety. Mid-size cars could average 41 miles per gallon, minivans more than 36 mpg and large pickup trucks nearly 30 mpg within 10 to 15 years.

Mileage standards, known as corporate average fuel economy, also called CAFE, have not been increased for cars for decades and remain at 27.5 mpg. Last year, the administration announced the average fuel economy for passenger trucks would rise from 22.2 mpg to 23.5 mpg by 2010. Saying the increase was insufficient, 11 states, including Maine, sued the federal government.

Rather than examining how best to raise standards or to boost them just a bit, Congress should enact significantly higher standards. A bill sponsored by Sen. Snowe would raise the fleetwide standard for cars and light trucks to 35 mpg by 2018. It would also, for the first time, include vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds in the new standards.

Sen. Collins soon will introduce a comprehensive climate change bill that will include higher CAFE standards.

These and other pieces of legislation will allow lawmakers to do the work that the president has pushed off in favor of more study.