Moving Forward by Raising CAFE Standards

Yesterday, the Senate passed an Energy bill that would raise CAFE standards.

“This bill starts America on a path toward reducing our reliance on oil by increasing the nation’s use of renewable fuels,” said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader.

Environmental groups, though disappointed by the setbacks on renewable fuels, nevertheless hailed the vote on higher mileage requirements as a long-sought victory that could eventually reduce American gasoline consumption by more than 1 million gallons of gasoline a day.

If the Senate bill becomes law, car manufacturers would have to increase the average mileage of new cars and light trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020, compared with roughly 25 miles per gallon today.

John Kerry puts the new Energy bill into perspective...

A year ago I was battling to stop drilling in ANWR. Last night - finally -- after years of battling and five years after we introduced the Kerry-McCain legislation to raise fuel efficiency standards -- we've accomplished something in the Senate on fuel efficiency standards.

This is something that never would've happened with Bill Frist as the Majority Leader, but with Harry Reid leading the Senate we were able to finally pass the first significant rise in CAFE standards in over a generation.

The past few years Democrats were on defense, trying to stop bills. Now finally, Democrats are able to get legislation passed that they have wanted to do for years.