NHTSA Pitches Hike in Fuel Economy

Washington DC August 14, 2006; The AIADA newsletter reported that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) last week presented Congress with a proposal to raise the fuel economy for cars, a result of last year's energy bill, which called on NHTSA to study ways it could reduce the energy consumption of the nation's cars and trucks by the 2014 model year, reported The Detroit Free Press.

While the NHTSA proposal had no specific targets, it argued that U.S. energy consumption could be reduced if the federal safety agency was granted power to change the fuel economy standards of cars as it had done for pickups and SUVs, which NHTSA will now base on size.

President Bush has already backed NHTSA's efforts and asked Congress to do the same.