Dems Support Higher Auto Fuel Efficiency

It looks like the Democrats may finally be able to send Bush an energy bill. The bill had been held up by Rep. John Dingell (D-Michigan). Dingell is a protector of his home state's auto industry. He has been trying to protect that industry from stringent new fuel efficiency standards for automobiles.

Now it looks like Speaker Pelosi (D-California) has negotiated a deal that Dingell and the auto industry can live with. The deal will result in the raising of fuel efficiency for autos. Auto companies will now be required to have a fleet-average of 35 miles per gallon (including light trucks and SUVs) by the year 2020. The old standard was 27.5 mpg average for cars and 22.0 mpg average for SUVs, vans and pickups.

The energy bill also requires power companies to have 15% of their power produced by renewable sources such as wind and solar. The Republicans are not happy with the bill. They wanted incentives for increased oil, natural gas and coal production. In other words, their solution to our energy problems is to produce more pollution.

But while Republicans may still be thinking of energy production in twentieth century terms, at least the Democrats are thinking in twenty-first century ideas. We can no longer produce energy and autos with no regard to pollution and global climactic change.

I would have liked to have seen even more stringent auto fuel standards and a higher percentage of energy produced with renewable resources, but at least the Democrats are moving in the right direction. These may not be giant steps forward, but at least they are steps forward. That is more than you can say for what the Republican leadership has done in the last few years (or more appropriately, refused to do).

Now they just need to get Bush to agree to the new standards.