A Deal On Fuel Efficiency

This is the best that can be hoped for given the margins in the House and Senate, and for now, the renewable energy standard for electricity is still in the bill, which is crucial. If that stays then this is a tremendous step forward, and a big win for Nancy Pelosi.

Congressional negotiators reached a deal late Friday on energy legislation that would force American automakers to improve the fuel efficiency of their cars and light trucks by 40 percent by 2020.

The proposal, which would require automakers to achieve 35 miles per gallon on average, is similar to a measure that was passed in the summer by the Senate but was bitterly opposed by the auto companies, who argued they did not have the technology or the financial resources to reach that goal [...]

Ms. Pelosi called the compromise on mileage “an historic advancement in our efforts in the Congress to address our energy security and laying strong groundwork for climate legislation next year.” She said that she was confident it would win the backing of environmentalists, auto makers and labor and would clear Congress by the end of this year.

Mr. Dingell, in a statement, called the new mileage standard “aggressive and attainable.”

Standing up to the automakers here, and getting the buy-in from the Dingellsaurus, reflects a strong negotiating hand and an expectation of favorable public opinion to do something about rising gas prices. And raised awareness about global warming has led 150 global business firms to seek mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to fight global warming. This legislation would take a step in that direction.

Some of the world's largest firms -- including Coca-Cola, General Electric, Shell, Nestlé, Nike, DuPont, Johnson & Johnson, British Airways and Shanghai Electric -- said that the scientific evidence for climate change is "now overwhelming" and that a legally binding agreement "will provide business with the certainty it needs to scale up global investment in low-carbon technologies."

A separate coalition of environmental groups and U.S. companies, including Honeywell, Shell Oil and Pacific Gas & Electric, helped underwrite a report, released yesterday by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., that analyzes how much it would cost to reduce U.S. emissions significantly by 2030. The report, which examines 250 options, concludes that the United States could cut emissions by 3 billion to 4.5 billion metric tons a year through existing approaches and "high-potential emerging technologies" if the federal government signaled that it was determined to reduce greenhouse gases dramatically. That would represent a 7 percent to 28 percent reduction from the 2005 levels.

The President hasn't been shy threatening to veto bills this year, yet he's said nothing on this one, so this might actually pass through, and believe it or not, would culminate a pretty solid year of accomplishments for the Democratic Congress relative to recent years. Obviously, the failure on Iraq is troubling, but one interesting angle of the lack of focus on Iraq is that the President's plaintive wails about getting more no-strings funding aren't quite as loud in the media, allowing Pelosi to be far more forceful on troop pullback dates. At some point there will be a tipping point and this will change, but for now she's standing tall.