Roll back fuel economy standards, and families will pay

If you’ve bought a new or used car recently, you might be pleasantly surprised by how much you are saving on gas. Sure, gas prices have dropped, but so has the amount of gas your car guzzles. Fuel economy standards have helped raise the average mileage of cars and trucks by almost 5 miles per gallon over the last decade, helping you go farther on each fill-up. For families in Florida, that translates to savings of over $2.2 billion on gas since 2010.

You will save even more on your next car or truck as fuel economy is set to continue to gradually increase through model year 2025. Thanks to increasing fuel efficiency, the average family in the Sunshine State is expected to save about $3,050 by 2030, based on an analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists. But politicians in Washington are actively trying to halt this progress. If their efforts are successful, it will reduce your expected savings.

The fuel economy program encourages automakers to put existing technology to work to save you money, and to develop new innovations to save you even more. The program is flexible so automakers can meet targets based on the types of vehicles they sell. This encourages automakers to offer a wide variety of vehicles with improved mileage, including pickups, SUVs, and crossovers. This flexibility ensures you can choose the vehicle that’s right vehicle for you, without breaking your budget to keep the tank full.

Surveys from Consumers Union, the advocacy division of Consumer Reports, show that car and truck buyers care about fuel economy and want to spend less on gas. Our latest survey found that over 70 percent of Americans want the government to continue to set higher fuel economy targets for the cars and trucks they buy. With households gravitating toward crossovers, trucks and SUVs in recent years, it is no surprise that nearly 80 percent of Americans want to see efficiency improvements in larger vehicles. Consumers not only want their SUVs and crossovers, they want to be able to afford to drive them, too.

Yet amazingly, politicians seem intent on doing the opposite of what Americans are demanding. A bill, making its way through the Senate now, would significantly weaken the fuel economy program. Instead of pushing automakers to keep improving the efficiency of their vehicles, the bill would stall progress by removing the incentive for automakers to develop and deploy new, cost-effective fuelsaving technologies for years to come.

And the federal agencies responsible for the program are poised to lower future targets and further weaken the program in the coming months.

Consumers would suffer from these rollbacks. Since the standards were initially set, automakers have shown how innovative they can be, installing advanced transmissions, efficient engines and aerodynamic improvements in new cars and trucks while also delivering more safety and horsepower. All these efficiency technologies pay for themselves and more. Going forward, this progress can continue. In fact, the targets for model year 2025 vehicles would save their owners about $3,200 per car and $4,800 per truck or SUV over the life of that vehicle even after accounting for the cost of adding the fuel saving technologies.

Rolling back fuel economy would cut those savings, adding to monthly expenses. Families that need pickups, SUVs and minivans, as well as businesses that rely on trucks, would be hit the hardest, as the changes to the program could essentially halt all efficiency improvements in those vehicles.

The bottom line? Families, businesses and workers in Florida can’t afford to have fuel economy standards rolled back.