NHTSA: CAFE Up by 4.5% P.a. to 39.4mpg by 2020

Translation: NHTS = National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. They’re the federal agency in charge of setting and enforcing federal fuel economy regulations, amongst other things, as directed by the U.S. Congress. CAFE = Corporate Average Fuel Economy. Those are the fuel economy rules which dictate the combined (i.e. overall) fuel economy of a car manufacturer’s entire U.S. product line. 4.5% p.a. = the annual overall efficiency increase that the NHTSA will require from manufacturers selling cars in the United States. 2020 = the year during which people stop giving a shit about fuel economy because everyone’s driving plug-in electric hydrogen fuel cell CNG diesel hybrid vehicles. 39.4mpg = the completely unrealistic end-point when you do the math at 4.5 percent per year. And get this my beleaguered auto-building brethren: it’s actually a higher number than that stipulated by Congress. Equally important, we still don’t know how the standard will be calculated. Auto industry reaction after you go ahead and jump.

Dave McCurdy, CEO for Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, greeted the NHTSA’s announcement with open arms [via The Detroit News]. “[Our members share] with all Americans concerns about energy security and climate change,” adding that “greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles must be built on a single, strong national standard.” Wow, big change in tone there. Back in August, the Alliance called NHTSA’s proposal and its draft environmental statement ‘illogical’ and ‘wholly inconsistent’ Apparently, the agency “vastly overstated the benefits improving fuel economy.” Maybe that’s because the final environmental impact statement claims “the proposed fuel economy increases could reduce gasoline usage by 19.5 billion gallons through 2020 and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 185 million metric tons through 2100.” Or maybe not. Probably more to do with California’s push to set its own damn standard. Better the Devil you know than the demons you don’t.