Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass has been pushing a particularly aggressive set of fuel economy regulations that would require automakers to meet a 35mpg fleet average by 2019 three years sooner than the bill that has already passed the US Senate. The House of Representatives is due to consider an energy bill this week before leaving for their August recess.
Markey had been considering attaching his proposal to that energy bill and indicated that he felt he had sufficient support of the rules. However, intensive lobbying by the auto industry, including Toyota, has persuaded Markey to wait until September when the House takes up John Dingell's D-MI global warming package. The Markey proposal will now face a challenge from an alternative put forward by Reps. Baron Hill, D-Ind., and Lee Terry, R-Neb and supported that would mandate 32-35mpg by 2022.
Unfortunately, so far no one in congress seems to have any real interest in actually doing to politically more difficult but necessary thing of restructuring fuel taxes to reflect the true cost of fuel.
[Source: Detroit Free Press]
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