Washington (Natural Gas Alert), June 24, 2005

The US Senate late June 24 voted down 67-28 an amendment to the comprehensive energy bill that would have raised the fuel efficiency of both passenger vehicles and light trucks to 40 miles per gal over 11 years.

The amendment, sponsored by Senator Richard Durbin (Democrat-Illinois), was opposed by the White House, which said drastic increases in fuel efficiency could make vehicles less safe.

Current Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards are 27.5 mpg for passenger cars and 21.0 mpg for model year 2005 light trucks. The light truck standard will rise to 22.2 mpg in model year 2007 vehicles. The Senate at about 9:30 pm wound up work on the energy bill, and scheduled a vote on the overall bill for 9:45 am on June 28.

The delay was a nod to the chief architect of the legislation, Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (Republican-New Mexico), who was out of town because of base-closing hearings in his home state, and not able to vote.

The House and Senate are expected to meet in the coming weeks to work out differences in their respective bills to form one cohesive bill, known as a conference report. Both chambers need to approve that conference report before it can be sent to President Bush for his signature. Bush has said he wants a completed bill on his desk before the Congress recesses later this summer.