Average Fuel Economy Standards Passenger Cars and Light Trucks Model Year 2011

The future of this country's economy, security, and environment are linked to one key challenge: energy. To reduce fuel consumption, NHTSA has been issuing Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards since the late 1970's under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA). However, the principal effects of these standards are broader than their statutory purpose. Reducing fuel consumption conserves petroleum, a non-renewable energy source, saves consumers money, and promotes energy independence and security by reducing dependence on foreign oil. It also directly reduces the motor vehicle tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide (CO<INF>2</INF>), which is the principal greenhouse gas emitted by motor vehicles. The Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) amended EPCA by mandating that the model year (MY) 2011-2020 CAFE standards be set sufficiently high to ensure that the industry-wide average of all new passenger cars and light trucks, combined, is not less than 35 miles per gallon by MY 2020. This is a minimum requirement, as NHTSA must set standards at the maximum feasible level in each model year. NHTSA will determine, based on all of the relevant circumstances, whether that additional requirement calls for establishing standards that reach the 35 mpg goal earlier than MY 2020. NHTSA published a proposal in May 2008 to begin implementing EISA by establishing CAFE standards for MYs 2011-2015. A draft final rule for those model years was completed, but not issued. In the context of his calls for the development of new national policies to prompt sustained domestic and international actions to address the closely intertwined issues of energy independence, energy security and climate change, the President issued a memorandum on January 26, 2009, requesting NHTSA to divide its rulemaking into two parts. First, he requested the agency to issue a final rule adopting CAFE standards for MY 2011 only. Given the substantial time and analytical effort involved in developing CAFE standards and the limited amount of time before the statutory deadline of March 30, 2009 for establishing the MY 2011 standards, the agency has necessarily based this one year final rule almost wholly on the information available to it and the analysis performed by it in support of the draft final rule completed last fall. Second, the President requested NHTSA to establish standards for MY 2012 and later after considering the appropriate legal factors, the comments filed in response to the May 2008 proposal, the relevant technological and scientific considerations, and, to the extent feasible, a forthcoming report by the National Academy of Sciences, mandated under section 107 of EISA, assessing existing and potential automotive technologies and costs that can practicably be used to improve fuel economy. The deferral of action on standards for the later model years provides the agency with an opportunity to review its approach to CAFE standard setting, including its methodologies, economic and technological inputs and decisionmaking criteria, so as to ensure that it will produce standards that contribute, to the maximum extent possible within the limits of EPCA/EISA, to meeting the energy and environmental challenges and goals outlined by the President. NHTSA estimates that the MY 2011 standards will raise the industry- wide combined average to 27.3 mpg, save 887 million gallons of fuel over the lifetime of the MY 2011 cars and light trucks, and reduce CO<INF>2</INF> emissions by 8.3 million metric tons during that period.