CAFE Rises 8 Percent for 2011 Models, to 27.3 MPG; Bigger Boosts Coming

CAFE Rises 8 Percent for 2011 Models, to 27.3 MPG; Bigger Boosts Coming

As expected , the feds have issued new average fuel economy rules for 2011 model-year cars and trucks, calling for an overall corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) of 27.3 miles per gallon.

The rules also drop language, inserted in the waning months of the Bush administration, that would have kept California from adopting its own greenhouse gas emissions regulations and other states (13 have signed up to do so) from following California's lead.

The new, interim CAFE regulations represent a an 8 percent, or 2 mpg, increase over the present standard and while not as high has many wanted it to be, are just the first in a series of CAFE adjustments we'll be seeing over the next few years.

The Obama administration has signaled that it is willing - and likely - to push the federal fuel economy standard well beyond the 35 miles per gallon minimum goal Congress has set for the 2020 model year.

To meet the 2011 rules, new passenger cars will be required to achieve a fleet average of 30.2 mpg, up from 27.5 mpg now, while light truck fuel economy would have to average 24.1 mpg, up from 23 mpg.

The Department of Transportation is estimating that the new CAFE standards for the 2011 model year will save 887 million gallons of fuel with a resulting cut in carbon dioxide emissions of 8.3 million metric tons.

While the CAFE increase isn't as high as once was proposed by the Bush administration, environmentalists aren't scolding the Obama administration much: former President George W. Bush said just before leaving office that he'd decided to hand-off the fuel efficiency rule-making task to his predecessor, leaving Obama's team just two months to come up with the numbers.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is charged with promulgating the fuel efficiency rules, said it wasn't possible in the short time it had after Obama's inauguration to consider the new technologies and methodologies the new president's team wanted to apply to the CAFE rule-making process.

The rule says that in ongoing review of fuel economy regulations NHTSA will look at both the auto industry's financial health and the nation's "energy and climate change needs" and that it would be reasonable to assume that the reviews would lead to further changes in CAFE requirements.

A major trade group for the auto industry said that the interim rules were fine and urged the administration to quickly institute regulations for the 2012-2020 model years as well so automakers will have known fuel economy standards to plan for.

Te American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy called the standards "disappointing" but said it understood that the administration was hampered by time constraints (the law requires that automakers be given 18 months advance notice of a CAFE change, which meant the new rules had to be published by April 1).

Noting that the standards are now based on "unreasonably low" estimates that gas prices will remain well under $3 a gallon for years to come, the ACEEE said it its statement that it hoped "the Administration will do better for 2012 and beyond, when it has had the opportunity to conduct an analysis from scratch."

You can see the new rules here, but beware, it is a large file.

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.