Comments on the Proposed 2025 Fuel Economy Standards

Today’s LA Times has a good article on the proposed fuel economy standards for 2025.  The standards are stated as each fleet will achieve 54.5 mpg average by then, and that will gradually be reached starting from 2017.  The current goal is for 35.5 mpg by the 2016 new vehicles.  The present average of the 2011 fleet is 27.8 mpg.  The 2025 goal is agreeable to the main stakeholders of manufacturers and labor, and environmentalists, but apparently not to dealers.  The problem is that there are exemptions to maintain the current mix of larger and sporty cars, SUVs, and small trucks, although they still will have their mileage increased.  The actual mileage for cars, even, will be about 42 mpg, and “significantly lower” for other vehicles.  The other factor is that it takes about 15 years to replace the vehicle fleet, so there will still be 2011 cars on the road in 2025, and the standards won’t be fully effective until 2040 for all cars on the road .  There is the economic advantages of keeping American automobile makers, investors, and labor in good financial shape.  The number of American autoworkers has declined by half in recent years due to the economy, and probably outsourcing.  Improving gas mileage for all classes of vehicles is important though.  The improved mileage will eventually save the US $80 billion a year from oil imports, which currently run about $300 billion a year.

A more advanced weighting of vehicular effective mileage per person has influenced me in not being too negative of SUVs and small trucks in certain circumstances.  First, contractors need small trucks for work, and often transport coworkers, so the effective mileage per person is doubled or tripled.  Similarly, mothers who transport kids to school or activities in SUVs also have a high mileage per person, and also probably do not drive as far as a long distance commuter.  Finally, carpoolers, even in a present average 25 mpg car, can double, triple or quadruple the average mileage per person, and tie a Prius or even an electric car in effective CO2 pollution per mile per person.

 

About Dennis SILVERMAN

I am a retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at U C Irvine. For two decades I have been active in learning about energy and the environment, and in reporting on those topics for a decade. For the last four years I have added science policy. Lately, I have been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic of our times.
This entry was posted in Autos, Climate Change, Oil, Transportation and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply