Energy Program News

FORT LAUDERDALE -- A new report by Environment Florida finds that the automobile fuel economy provision in the Senate energy bill would save Florida consumers over $1.6 billion dollars at the pump in 2020, reduce oil consumption by over 74,000 barrels per day and would be the equivalent of taking nearly nine hundred thousand cars off the road.

“Every painful squeeze of the gas pump reminds holiday travelers of our costly dependence on oil,” said Environment Florida spokesperson Adam Rivera. “With oil approaching $100 a barrel, it is past time for Congress to pass an energy bill that we can be thankful for.”

Environment Florida’s new report “Driving Towards a New Energy Future,” shows that in 2020 alone, Floridians would save over $1.6 billion at the pump in 2020 and reduce oil consumption by 74,230 barrels of oil a day.

The savings of the CAFE provision would be even more significant nationwide. The Senate bill would:

• reduce our national energy consumption by 1.2 million barrels per day in 2020
• save American consumers $26.5 billion dollars; and
• equate to taking 14 million cars off the road, in terms of global warming emissions reductions.

This summer the Senate passed the first new corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) legislation in more than 30 years. Unfortunately, the House energy bill did not contain the same provision. As Congress works to come up with a final energy bill, the CAFE provisions and a renewable electricity standard must be combined with efficiency provisions to create a bill that would put America on the path toward a new clean energy future.

“It is time for the auto industry to make our cars go farther on a gallon of gas, instead of making the same tired excuses about how they can’t do it,” said Rivera. “We have the technology to get to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. It’s time for Congress to pass a strong energy bill.”

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