Fuel-efficiency rule doesn't go extra mile
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PRESIDENT OBAMA'S new rule for stepped-up motor vehicle fuel efficiency, combined with first-time-ever rules regulating carbon emissions, is a major step forward ("Tougher rules for cars, trucks," Page A8, May 20). To be truly effective, however, the new rule should have eliminated the corrosive double standard allowing sport utility vehicles to be classified as "light trucks."
The 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act gave automakers a loophole big enough to drive through with a whole new generation of gas-guzzling SUVs. This double standard has made a mockery of all subsequent efforts to ratchet up US fuel efficiency standards, exempting a huge segment of the car market from tighter rules.
The Obama administration's new rule perpetuates this double standard. While cars are to reach 39 miles per gallon by 2016, light trucks and SUVs will continue to enjoy a much easier ride to a mere 30 miles per gallon by the same date.
Reclassifying SUVs as cars would bring a much-needed dose of honesty to a long-flawed regulatory regime.
Philip Warburg
Newton
