Will We Be Spending Less at the Pump?

According to CNN.com the Senate passed a mandate this June to dramatically raise the corporate average fuel economy standard. The completion would come by 2020 and would raise cars from 27.5 miles per gallon and trucks from 22.2 miles per gallon to 35mpg fleet-wide. The corporate average fuel economy has not been raised in over thirty years.

There are significant loopholes in the bill which include automakers receiving credits for producing flex fuel cars, which are able to run on ethanol. But even this is still benefiting the environment and the consumer's pocket book. What is interesting is that even though automakers currently have built millions of flex fuel cars only 1.5 percent used the ethanol.

Ethanol is not widely available. The US only produced 4 billion gallons of biofuels in 2005. The bill that the Senate passed this June would include requiring this to increase to 36 billion by 2022.

One concern that this bill brings is the increasing potential for manufacturers to go overseas for minimized production costs. The possibility of adding a provision to the bill that would limit these possibilities has been discussed, mainly by House Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell.

Another initial negative aspect could be the increase of cost passed on to the consumer. These changes will be costly for the manufacturers and we would be the ones helping to pay those costs initially.

With global warming being a concern and a focus of our nation, the costs may be considered minimal for the long term improvements. We also need to realize the potential cost of gasoline by 2020, twelve years from now. Twelve years ago, in 1995, gasoline averaged $1.50 in our country. What increases can we even expect?

I believe that this bill should be passed by the House, who has not yet voted. I think that we are now trying to proactive to the concerns that have been so widely discussed and debated for years.