No New 2025 CAFE Info Until September 2011 Says EPA
By John O'Dell December 2, 2010
When federal regulators issued the outlines of the fleet fuel economy standards that might be issued for the 2017-2025 period, the range of potential averages was a broad one - 47-62 mpg.
A narrowing of the range of prospective goals for the next round of CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards was promised, though - the idea being that the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would have time by the end of the year do do some additional analysis and give us all a better idea of how much - or little - they'd be asking of the auto industry.
But that analysis hasn't happened and late Tuesday the agencies issued a notice saying they would not now try to refine the parameters until their final proposal for the next CAFE period is released in September, 2011.
The first "notice of intent" issued in October said the agencies were considering a range of annual fuel economy increases for the 2017-2025 period, from a low of 3 percent to a high of 6 percent.
Starting from the presentlly required 2017 CAFE standard of 35 miles per gallon, the 3 percent scenario would gadually raise CAFE to about 42 miles a gallon by 2025; the 6 percent scenario would raise it to 62 mpg.
(The CAFE standard is used by regulators to measure average fleet fuel efficiency of each automaker and is computed under a different set of assumptions than used for the EPA "consumer" fuel economy ratings posted on new vehicles' window stickers. A 35 mpg CAFE average equates to and EPA rating of 27 mpg. A 62 mpg CAFE standard would equal about 44 mpg on the EPA consumer rating scale.)
The agencies said in their notice this week that they just couldn't collect sufficient data by year's end to update the cost and safety numbers they use to justify CAFE increase proposals.
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