WASHINGTON - A group of lawmakers close to the auto industry on Thursday put forward an alternative to proposed fuel efficiency requirements in the Senate that would give automakers more time to reach the new standards and advance alternative vehicles.
Automakers have strongly opposed a plan in a Senate energy bill that would establish stronger fuel economy requirements.
"It will force the industry to bend but not break," said Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., who joined with Michigan Democrats Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow and Arkansas Democrat Mark Pryor to announce the proposal.
Automakers have said the Senate plan would cost them billions of dollars and force them to alter their offerings of larger vehicles. While the industry has traditionally opposed fuel economy increases, company officials indicated their support for the alternative.
Dave McCurdy, president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said the Pryor-Bond plan would be "the greatest technological challenge this industry has ever faced" but represented a vast improvement over the current Senate plan.
"We're willing to roll up our sleeves and be a part of the solution," said General Motors Corp. spokesman Greg Martin.
But they will face a considerable fight. The current proposal sailed through the Senate Commerce Committee and backers of the plan say they have broad support.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., one of the chief proponents of the Senate bill, said the alternative was a "major step backwards" because it would accomplish less than half of the fuel savings, greenhouse gas reductions and savings for consumers as outlined in her bill.
Feinstein said her bill "strikes the right balance - and sets forward a significant, achievable standard for the future."
Supporters of Feinstein's plan have said it would give automakers flexibility because it would take into account a vehicle's dimensions in calculating the efficiency requirements and allow automakers who exceed the rules to trade credits. By 2020, the fleet average would need to be 35 mpg, unless government regulators find that it would not be cost-effective.
Levin and Bond stressed that their version offered more guarantees that the fuel-economy increases would be met.
"We gave tough goals and reasonable deadlines and we're saying you have to meet them - end of story," Bond said.
Under their approach, each auto manufacturer would need to produce and sell 50 percent advanced technology vehicles, such as hybrids or clean diesels, or flexible fuel vehicles by 2015. That would appeal to Detroit's automakers, which have pledged to boost production of flexible-fuel vehicles, and Toyota Motor Corp., which is aggressively pursuing hybrids.
It would also call for about $950 million in funding, or twice what the Bush administration has requested, to jump-start research and development of advanced vehicle technologies, such as batteries, hybrids, diesels and hydrogen storage. The plan would also attempt to increase the availability of biofuels.
Congress has made little progress in raising fuel economy standards during the past two decades. The fleet of passenger cars are required to get an average of 27.5 mpg, while SUVs, pickup trucks and vans must get an average of 22.2 mpg. That's a combined average of about 25 mpg.
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