Key lawmakers skeptical of Bush fuel savings plan

[rodeodance]

Key lawmakers skeptical of Bush fuel savings plan

By John Crawley 1 hour, 41 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Influential members of Congress expressed doubt on Wednesday about the White House goal of raising auto fuel efficiency by 4 percent next decade, convinced the target would harm U.S. manufacturers.


Rep. John Dingell (news, bio, voting record), a Michigan Democrat and chairman of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, suggested change is inevitable but he is not sold on the White House approach for saving 8.5 billions of gasoline by 2017.

"We have a target but we don't know how we're going to get there," Dingell said after skewering the Bush administration initiative at an Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing.

Administration officials acknowledged after sharp questioning by Dingell that much of the data for their proposal for passenger vehicles is rough or old, and little in-house study has been done.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070228/pl_nm/autos_fuel_dc;_ylt=AjWDrV1eH296pm8YmvUttGjMWM0F

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. 4% ?!?!?! LOL, the time to do a 4% decrease

was, oh, 1975 or so.

What a joke.

[Demeter]

2. We've Seen George "Save"; Skeptical is Right! n/t

[Eugene]

3. AP: Panel Says New Fuel Economy Plan Needed

Panel Says New Fuel Economy Plan Needed

By KEN THOMAS, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

(02-28) 12:35 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

A new approach is needed for setting fuel-economy standards, lawmakers said Wednesday
as they considered changes amid concerns about global warming and the problems of
struggling U.S. automakers.

The Bush administration outlined a proposal to boost fuel economy standards before
members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which will help shape the
measure.

Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., said the "old debate is no longer sufficient"
with Congress' focus on climate change and the number of fuel-saving technologies now
in place since the rules were first established in the 1970s.

"A system to regulate fuel economy, without considering the nature of the fuel or the
level of greenhouse gasses it emits, may be inadequate," said Dingell.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/02/28/national/w123528S51.DTL

[rodeodance]

4. the Dems need to put forth a BOLD plan and stop piddling around!

[midnight]

5. Hi rodeodance. I think I have seen your post in the Wisconsin

lobby. If you are from Wisconsin you probably heard Governor Doyle speak about making Wisconsin Energy independent. Not exactly sure how Wisconsin plans on doing that, but if someone from Seattle is here, and wants to weigh in on how the Mayor of Seattle is turning the city green that would be helpful. I only now from a half an hour of a PBS special of that city's usage of biodiseal fuel that some are making in garage. Very encouraging.

[Egalitarian]

6. MPG averages: Japan=45, Europe=40+, N. America=20

And the auto lobby whines about how much it will cost them...Bullshit, the rest of the world is doing it.

Info from Wiki here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mileage

snip

The average fuel efficiency of European cars is over 40 mpg (5.9 L/100 km), Japanese cars 45 mpg (5.2 L/100 km), and North American cars 20.4 mpg (11.5 L/100 km).<1>

An interesting example of fuel economy is the popular microcar Smart ForTwo, which can achieve up to 3.4 L/100 km (69.2 mpg) using a turbocharged three-cylinder Diesel-engine. The Smart is produced by DaimlerChrysler and is currently only sold by one company in the United States (see external link ZAP). The current record in fuel economy of production cars is held by Volkswagen, with a special production model of the Volkswagen Lupo (the Lupo 3L) and the Audi A2 that can consume as little as 3 litres per 100 kilometres (78 miles per US gallon or 94 miles per Imperial gallon). The production lines for the Audi A2 und Volkwagen Lupo closed in June 2005.

Diesel engines often achieve greater fuel efficiency than petrol (gasoline) engines. Diesel engines have maximum energy efficiency of 45% and Petrol engines of 30% <2>. That's one of the reasons why Diesels have better fuel economy that equivalent petrol cars. A common margin is 40% more miles per gallon for an efficient turbodiesel. For example, the current model Skoda Octavia, using Volkswagen engines, has a combined Euro mpg of 38.2 mpg for the 102 bhp petrol engine and 53.3 mpg for the 105 bhp — and heavier — diesel engine. The higher compression ratio is helpful in raising efficiency, but diesel fuel also contains approximately 11% more energy per unit volume than gasoline.<3> Diesels consume less fuel also when operating at low power output or at idle, because they can run with leaner mixtures than can spark ignition engines. On the other hand the weight difference is significant for powerful cars.

snip