Tougher fuel economy standards a must, judges say

The Bush administration must write tougher fuel-economy regulations for sport-utility vehicles, minivans and pickups that take into account greenhouse-gas pollution, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

The decision by judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco targeted a loophole that lets the top-selling vehicles, including Chevrolet Tahoe and Ford Expedition, get fewer miles per gallon of fuel than passenger cars do.

It was the third ruling this year by a federal court to bolster contentions from state governments and environmental groups that the president and federal regulators haven't been doing enough to battle climate change.

The lawsuit was brought by 11 states, the cities of New York and Washington, D.C., and several environmental groups against the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is charged with setting vehicle-mileage requirements.

The lawsuit, filed after the Bush administration announced the new fuel-economy standards, challenged "as trivial" an increase in light-truck mileage announced in March 2006. Washington state is not party to the suit.

The new standards required most passenger trucks to boost fuel economy from 22.5 mpg in 2008 to at least 23.5 mpg by 2010. Passenger cars are required to meet a 27.5 mpg average.

"This is a stunning rebuke to the Bush administration and its failed energy policy," said California Attorney General Jerry Brown, whose state is party to the suit.

He predicted the decisions this year by the U.S. Supreme Court, a U.S. District Court judge in Vermont and the Court of Appeals in San Francisco would send a signal to Congress to set stricter mileage standards on all U.S. passenger cars and light trucks.

Automakers, responding to the appeals-court ruling, said they "support aggressive fuel-economy increases" between now and 2022. But the president of the Alliance of American Automobile Manufacturers, Dave McCurdy, urged federal officials not to change current fuel-economy standards for SUVs, minivans and light trucks to be built during the 2008-11 model years.

"Any further changes to the program would only delay the progress that manufacturers have made toward increasing fleetwide fuel economy," he said.

Charles Miller, a Justice Department spokesman, said the administration was reviewing the decision.

"If no appeal is forthcoming, the NHTSA would be forced to scrap the current fuel-economy standard. New standards would need to be written that provide "the maximum feasible" fuel savings, the appeals court said.

In their ruling, the appeals-court judges noted that federal regulators didn't present a convincing case for putting SUVs and other light trucks in a different category from passenger cars when setting fuel-economy standards.

"NHTSA's decision runs counter to the evidence showing that SUVs, vans and pickup trucks are manufactured primarily for the purpose of transporting passengers and are generally not used for off-highway operation," they said.

NHTSA had argued that it considered the intent of the manufacturer in making light trucks, rather than their actual highway use, in developing the new fuel standards.

"But this overlooks the fact that many light trucks today are manufactured primarily for transporting passengers," Judge Betty Fletcher wrote for the three-judge panel.

The court also took the administration to task for refusing to include in the new standards trucks weighing more than 8,500 pounds, a class that includes the Hummer H2, Ford F250 and other popular large vehicles.

The court ordered NHTSA to develop fuel standards for these large trucks or give a better reason than the agency's argument that it has never regulated those large trucks and that more testing needs to be done.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.