Playing Climate Change Roulette with CAFE

Buying a fuel efficient car is one of the first steps to take in reducing your personal GHG footprint. However, you will probably find that the mileage you actually get may be up to 50% less than the EPA sticker. An article in the Oct. '05 Consumer Reports contains important information about the EPA fuel efficiency ratings of new cars. Estimates of the national fleet fuel economy that are used by Congress and the NHTSA are much higher than actual because of the inaccuracy of the EPA mileage sticker. But it gets worse...

The Consumer Reports article titled "Fuel Economy - Why you're not getting the MPG you expect" is a report on a study done by CR comparing the EPA listed fuel economy with actual for 303 cars and trucks for model years 2000-2006. The study found that "shortfalls in MPG occurred in 90% of the vehicles tested." Discrepancies between claimed and actual city driving mileage ranged between 35%-50% less for actual mileage. Although the EPA stickers can provide a basis for comparing different models, mileage obtained by the EPA testing protocol does not reflect actual mileage obtained. The EPA was forced to lower its mileage results in the '80s. This is called the "adjusted mpg". But the testing protocol was not changed.

Since the testing rules were developed, driving habits have changed, and vehicles have changed. More time is spent in dense traffic, with longer idle times. EPA uses a 55/45 split for city vs hwy to figure average economy, where the figure today is over 60% in city conditions. Cars are, on average, heavier, with more accessories, and more horsepower. Highway speeds are faster, causing a 10% increase in fuel burned.

The automakers can perform their EPA testing in a laboratory with stripped down prototype models. They are not required to test using actual road performance. CR did their testing with actual cars purchased from a lot on roads and on a test track. They found, over all the cars tested, that the average mileage was 9% less than the EPA sticker for gasoline cars and 18% less for diesels and hybrids.

Here's the really horrible part.

Congress and the National Highway Transportation and Safety Agency use the incorrect EPA numbers to set energy policy and enforce standards. The CR article states:

"The distortion is magnified to the benefit of three groups: 1)Automakers, who get false passing grades on fuel-economy standards. 2) Government, including lawmakers, who can point voters to their "successful" standards, and regulators, who can appear to crack the whip while actually going easy on a powerful industry lobby. 3) Oil interests, which benefit from the seeming energy efficiency of what appears to be a responsible national energy policy...

Because EPA ratings are inaccurate, resulting national fleet estimates are wrong, too. In fact, NHTSA's national estimate is farther off-base than the EPA sticker mpg. That's because Congress REQUIRES NHTSA to use the UNADJUSTED EPA test results. They are higher than the adjusted mpg and thus more inaccurate...

Why the congressional mandate? Automakers argued that if the lower adjusted EPA ratings represented real-world fuel economy, the CAFE standards should have been relaxed..."Nobody wanted to go to that trouble..."

If more-accurate mpg figures were used to rate CAFE compliance, MOST AUTOMAKERS WOULD FAIL TO MEET THE STANDARDS, our study shows."

So this is the bombshell...the American auto industry is FAILING to comply with the CAFE standards, set by law. But the POLITICAL INFLUENCE of the auto industry has allowed them to use FALSE testing methods to overstate the actual mileage obtained by the cars they make, with the COLLUSION of the government! So the American public is being told that the industry is complying with the CAFE standard, when in fact it is NOT! Not only is the American public being deceived by both the auto industry and the government, the automakers are getting away with avoiding millions of dollars in fines for violating the law. Worst of all, we have a faulty energy policy that is based on bogus data, that keeps our need for foreign oil high, along with our GHG emissions.

What should be done about this? Any ideas?