Environmental Group
Sues Government over Gas Mileage Rules
May 24, 2006 — By Ken Thomas, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — An environmental group
sued the Bush administration Tuesday over new rules to boost gas mileage
requirements for sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, saying the
regulations do not go far enough.
The Sierra Club, which filed the lawsuit, joined 10 states and other
environmental groups in challenging the rules, which would raise gas
mileage requirements by 1.8 miles per gallon for the 2008-2011 model
years to a fleetwide average of 24 mpg.
The administration released the new rules in March. The program, which
implements gas mileage rules based on a vehicle's size, is expected to
save 10.7 billion gallons of fuel, but detractors have said it only
amounts to a few weeks of fuel.
With high gas prices on the minds of consumers, President Bush has also
sought the authority to change the fuel economy program for passenger
cars. A measure allowing the administration to begin the process is
under consideration in Congress.
In the lawsuit, Sierra Club officials said the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration failed to follow the law requiring it to set fuel
economy standards at the maximum feasible level, arguing it could have
demanded more from automakers.
Pat Gallagher, director of the Sierra Club's legal program, said the new
rules "underestimated the technologies and ignored important benefits,
such as the ability to significantly reduce our global warming
emissions."
The group also cautioned that the size-based standard could give
automakers an incentive to avoid strict standards by building larger
vehicles that qualify for lower fuel economy rules. The lawsuit was
filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson said the agency had not yet seen the lawsuit
but the new rules were formulated "in a very careful and thorough and
deliberate fashion" that considered comments from a wide range of
groups.
"We are confident that the regulations that we finally came up with will
be upheld in court," he said.
Tyson said the agency had to develop a standard "that is technically
feasible and achievable without compromising safety and without doing
serious damage to the American economy and we believe we found that
balance."
Earlier this month, California and nine other states sued the government
over the rules, contending NHTSA did not conduct a thorough analysis of
the environmental benefits of fuel economy regulations and the impact of
gasoline consumption on climate change.
Similar lawsuits have been filed by the Tucson, Ariz.-based Center for
Biological Diversity and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Source: Associated Press
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