Achieving better performance

Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008 | 2:09 a.m.

One way Congress attempts to conserve energy is to mandate the minimum average fuel mileage American automobile manufacturers must achieve in their fleets. First established in 1975, the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards for this year are 27.5 miles a gallon for cars and 22.5 miles a gallon for light trucks.

Those standards must be increased to at least 35 miles a gallon combined for cars and light trucks by 2020, thanks to legislation approved last year by Congress and signed by President Bush. If it were left up to us, we would require that higher standard be achieved much sooner because it would be better for the environment and would help reduce our dependence on foreign crude oil.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is responsible for setting the standards at “maximum feasible” levels each year, has proposed that fleets average 27.8 miles a gallon by 2011 and 31.6 miles a gallon by 2015.

But those recommendations were based on a formula — calculated early this year — that assumed gasoline would cost only $2.04 to $3.37 a gallon between 2011 and 2015. While oil prices have declined recently, we are not confident they will continue to fall and stay within the price range projected by the federal agency.

The Environmental Protection Agency, to its credit, strongly recommended last month that the traffic safety administration rethink its calculations to more accurately reflect gasoline prices. By using higher, more realistic gas prices, the recommended minimum mileage standards for fleets would be increased, offsetting some of the pain consumers would feel when they fill up their tanks.

If the traffic safety administration factored in more realistic gas prices, the goal of at least 35 miles a gallon on average per vehicle could be achieved much sooner than 2020. Believing that gas could drop to as low as $2.04 a gallon within the next few years is an unrealistic expectation that should be quickly discarded.