Reply #5: Thanks for the help. I need to read the old bills. [View All]

[demdiva]

I also found this article about it by the same author earlier in the year.
http://www.grist.org/news/muck/2006/05/11/cafe/

NRDC energy expert Ashok Gupta hopes the legislation's sponsors will add a clear directive calling for stronger auto fuel-economy standards. But, he said, even in its current form, the bill "stipulates oil-savings targets ambitious enough that the White House would inevitably be forced to promote increases to fuel efficiency one way or another." Gupta argues that the ambitious oil-savings targets in Bingaman's bill are far more politically practicable than stronger CAFE standards, particularly in an election year.

"Like it or not, Detroit still has tremendous sway in Washington," says Gupta. He notes that in the last Senate vote on CAFE, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry (D-Mass) voted against raising standards, presumably because burning bridges with the auto lobby could hamper their presidential ambitions.