WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a trimmed-back energy bill Thursday that would bring cars and SUVs with higher gas mileage into showrooms in the coming decade and fill their tanks with ethanol.
The measure was approved 86-8 with strong bipartisan support after Democrats abandoned efforts to impose billions of dollars in new taxes on the biggest oil companies.
The bill now goes to the House, where a vote is expected next week. Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky predicted President Bush will sign the bill.
The measure calls for the first major increase by Congress in required automobile fuel efficiency in 32 years, something the auto companies have fought for two decades.
The car companies will have to achieve an industry-wide average 35 miles per gallon for cars, small trucks and SUVs over the next 13 years, an increase of 10 mpg over what the entire fleet averages today. The bill would boost use of ethanol to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022, a sevenfold increase, and impose an array of new requirements to promote efficiency in appliances, lighting and buildings.
This bill “will begin to reverse our addiction to oil. It’s a step to fight global warming,” said Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
The increased efficiency by 2020 will save 1.1 million barrels of oil of a day — equal to half the oil now imported from the Persian Gulf — save consumers $22 billion at the pump and reduce annual greenhouse gases emissions by 200 million tons, said Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, whose committee crafted the measure.
“It demonstrates to the world that America is a leader in fighting global warming,” he said.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., a longtime protector of the auto industry that is so important to his state, called the fuel economy measure “ambitious but achievable.”
For consumers, the legislation will mean that over the next dozen years, auto companies will likely build more diesel-powered SUVs and gas-electric hybrid cars, as well as vehicles that can run on 85 percent ethanol. They will push engineers to develop new technologies to save fuel.
“Automakers can meet the new standards with today’s technology,” said David Friedman, research director at the Union of Concerned Scientists Clean Vehicle Program. “Cars and trucks will be the same size and perform the same way they do today.”
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