Under President James Carter, the United States set Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards to raise the fuel economy of American cars over the years. For a while, it seemed that Chrysler met the requirements every year, while GM and Ford failed; and Ronald Reagan decided that the standards were impossible to meet (Chrysler notwithstanding) and retroactively rolled them back, adding to the American budget deficit while rewarding GM and Ford for breaking the law.We should not even think about what the actions of our government during those 8 years did for our nation, in terms of modelling honesty and incorruptibility.The standards this year are the same as they have been for several years: 20 mpg for light trucks and 27.5 mpg for cars. Some trucks, including the V-10 Dodge Ram 3500 and the Ford F-350, are actually exempted from those standards, because it is assumed they will only be used for business purposes. For that matter, it was generally assumed, at the time, that the only people buying pickups would be doing it for business. The only thing resembling the modern sport- utility was the Jeep Wagoneer, and not many of those were sold in the 1970s.Now, times have changed. The Chevy Blazer blazed a trail right up to the Lincoln Navigator by being as comfortable as a car, while giving the driver a nice high perch from which to express repressed hostility and overcome frustration. About half the cars sold in this country are not cars at all, but trucks of some sort. Our fuel economy is plunging, and our consumption is rising.
Some in Congress and environmentalist groups have proposed raising the standards for cars, but they have remained strangely quiet about raising the standards for light trucks, which burn considerably more fuel. This is strange.
I have a proposal that is much more sensible than raising the standards. I propose lowering the standards! Yes, I think there should be a CAFE requirement of 25 mpg -- but for cars and trucks. That means that, for every Dodge Durango, Chrysler would have to sell two Neons (shouldn't be too painful, they do make money from the Neon). With that in place, light trucks might start to shed some weight. Abominations like the Navigator might become much more sparse, and Explorers might start to give way to Tauruses on the road.
At the moment, thanks to the way the law is set up, the average fuel economy of American-made cars hovers around 23.5 mpg. An extra 1.5 mpg should not be hard, but it will make a tremendous impact on our nation's use of oil and on our pollution.
The logic of separating car and truck mileage was simple: cars were used for driving, trucks for work. Now, people commute in trucks as much as they do in cars. Let minivans and pickups take their place with cars in the law; they have already taken their place with cars in the roads.