Senate passes higher CAFE standards

This is great news. The Senate passed a bill raising the minimum fuel economy of all cars, SUVs, and light weight trucks to 35 mpg over the next 10 years. Think Progress reports that the effort was lead by California's own Sen. Feinstein.

Feinstein has released a statement on the vote: "The compromise legislation raises the fleetwide average fuel economy standards for all cars, trucks and SUVs by 10 miles per gallon over 10 years — or from 25 to 35 miles per gallon by Model Year 2020." By 2025, the fuel economy increases for cars and light-duty trucks would:

— Save between 2.0 and 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, nearly the amount of oil imported today from the Persian Gulf.
— Achieve up to 18 percent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from anticipated levels, or the equivalent of taking 60 million cars off the road in one year.
— Save consumers $79-98 billion at the pump, based on a $3.00 gas price.

Now it just needs to pass in the house. Call your house rep and tell them to support raising fuel economy standards.

Photo of LA smog by Flickr user recursive_1 used under a Creative Commons license