The nation's fleet of new cars and trucks will be required to achieve 31.6 miles per gallon by 2015, The Associated Press has learned.Transportation Department Secretary Mary Peters was outlining the plan on Earth Day, setting a schedule that was more aggressive than initially expected by industry officials. The plan responds to a new energy law pushed by Congress and signed by President Bush (web|news|bio) that requires the fleetwide average of new cars and trucks to meet 35 mpg by 2020.

New cars and trucks will have to meet a fleetwide average of 31.6 mpg by 2015, said a government official familiar with the proposal. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was not authorized to speak about the plan, which will set standards from 2011 to 2015.



Under the plan, the fleet of new vehicles will be required to achieve 27.8 mpg by 2011, with passenger cars achieving 31.2 mpg and pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and vans reaching 25 mpg by that year. By 2015, the efficiency of cars will be required to meet 35.7 mpg while the fleet of trucks would need to achieve 28.6 mpg.

The plan is expected to save $54.7 billion gallons of oil over the life of the new vehicles built between 2011-2015. It will add an average cost of $650 per passenger car and $979 per truck by 2015, the official said.

Transportation Department officials declined to comment on the proposal, which is expected to be finalized by the end of the Bush administration.

Automakers opposed increases to the regulations in previous years, but supported a compromise version of the legislation in Congress amid rising gasoline prices and concerns about global warming.

The regulations would require the industry to implement more than half of the fuel-efficiency requirements by 2015 and push them to build more gas-electric hybrid cars, diesel-powered trucks and SUVs and advances such as plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.

"These numbers are very challenging. They will stretch the industry to innovate in ways they haven't had to do in the past and will continue to set us on a course to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new autos," said Charles Territo, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp., Ford Motor Co. and others.

Amid rising gasoline prices and concerns of global warming, Congress sought the tougher standards, requiring the nation's fleet of new vehicles to increase its efficiency by 10 mpg from its current average of 25 mpg, or a 40 percent increase.

The new law represented the first major changes to the auto mileage rules in three decades.

The fleet of new passenger cars is currently required to meet a 27.5 mpg average, while sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and vans must hit a target of 22.5 mpg.

Members of Congress and environmental groups have pushed for higher standards, arguing that requiring vehicles to become more efficient would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the nation's dependence upon imported oil.

Democrats have said the fuel economy requirements will save motorists $700 to $1,000 a year in fuel costs and reduce oil demand by 1.1 million barrels a day when the more fuel-efficient vehicles are in wide use on the road.

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