Farm Groups Press For Keeping The Lid On CAFE Standard

August 31, 1999

Farm groups are lobbying Congress in an effort to maintain gasoline consumption standards on light trucks. The mileage standards are known as corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards and now are frozen at 20.7 mpg.

Five years ago, the Transportation Department tried to increase the federal gas mileage standards on light trucks to as high as 26-28 mpg. Farmers opposed that, and Congress voted to freeze the CAFE standard for light trucks at 20.7 mpg. But that freeze expires this fall unless Congress renews it.

The House already has voted to continue the freeze, but in the Senate, 31 members are opposed to continuing the freeze. The National Academy of Sciences conducted a study of automotive fuel economy and found that increasing the CAFE standards by 3-5 mpg could increase the price of a full-sized pickup truck by as much as $2,750.