Light-truck mileage goals hit big SUVs hard

WASHINGTON — The federal government for the first time Wednesday set gas-mileage goals for the largest sport-utility vehicles and said minivans, pickups and SUVs as a group must increase their fuel efficiency by 11 percent over five years.

Big, gas-guzzling SUVs are hit hardest under the rule. The 3-ton Hummer H2, for instance, which now gets an average of 13.8 miles per gallon, will have to achieve 22 mpg by 2011. The Ford Explorer SUV will have to increase its fuel efficiency from 17.7 mpg to 25.2 mpg, while a Dodge Caravan will need to inch up from 22.7 mpg to 23.5 mpg.

"No SUV gets a pass," Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said. The new standards represent the most ambitious fuel-economy goals for light trucks — SUVs, minivans and pickups — ever developed in the program's 27-year history, he said.

Nevertheless, environmental groups derided Wednesday's announcement, saying the rules are too modest for an administration that has called on the nation to kick its oil addiction.

Mineta's announcement comes as gasoline prices are nearing a six-month high, with a gallon of regular averaging $2.50 per gallon, or 35 cents more than it cost a year ago, according to the Department of Energy. At the same time, General Motors is staking its turnaround in profit this year on a new batch of large SUVs.

Mineta said the new rule is being phased in over five years to lessen the impact on the "fragile" U.S. auto industry, hit by declining market share and huge financial losses.

The new National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) standards aim to improve the fuel economy of the light-truck category to 24 mpg by 2011 on an industrywide scale, up from 21.6 mpg on 2006 models.

The rule could force automakers to spend $6.7 billion to update light trucks with fuel-saving technology needed to meet the new regulations, Mineta said. He added that the rule will save 10.7 billion gallons of gasoline over five years and help the overall economy, outweighing the expense to automakers. The system also closes a loophole that excluded the largest and least-efficient SUVs in the industry from the fuel-economy rules.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the industry's primary lobbying group, said meeting the standards of the new rule will be a "challenge" for automakers.

Environmental groups continue to seek tougher standards.

"The biggest single step that the president could take to cut our oil addiction, curb global warming and save consumers money at the gas pump is raising [fuel economy] standards substantially, and that's not what they're doing," said Dan Becker, director of the global-warming program at the Sierra Club. "They are tinkering around the edges rather than using the most powerful tool they've got."

Becker and other environmentalists also complained that NHTSA retained a fuel-economy exemption for the industry's largest pickups. Vehicles such as the Ford F250 and F350 pickups are excluded.

GM and Ford Motor depend heavily on profit from large SUVs. Demand for the vehicles collapsed last year as rising gas prices roiled the U.S. market for new cars and trucks. The resulting slide in profits has led to a major restructuring in the industry.

GM and Ford have announced turnaround plans that include cutting billions in costs and eliminating as many as 60,000 jobs over the next few years. Executives at both companies have said developing more vehicles with greater fuel economy is essential to fixing the companies' financial problems.

Chris Preuss, a GM spokesman in Washington, D.C., said the run-up in gas prices already is shifting consumer demand toward more fuel-efficient models.

"As fuel economy becomes more of a part of the purchase equation to consumers, it proves to be easier to deal with at the manufacturing level," he said.

Mineta said the 2011 deadline for the more fuel-efficient SUVs gives automakers enough time to act. Rules affecting minivans, trucks and smaller SUVs will be phased in starting next year.

Mineta said NHTSA is studying ways to improve the fuel economy of passenger cars.

The average mileage requirement for all cars has been stalled at 27.5 mpg since the 1975 Energy Policy Conservation Act was signed by President Ford. The law set initial fuel-economy standards after the OPEC oil embargo.