Star-Telegram (TX)
June 22, 2011

U.S. average fuel-economy improvement of 6 percent a year is “achievable and cost- effective” for U.S. automakers, former Republican U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrators, governors and members of Congress said in a letter to President Barack Obama, according to a Bloomberg News report.

The letter, dated today and signed by EPA administrators for every Republican president since Richard Nixon, asked Obama to write “aggressive” fuel-economy standards for 2017 to 2025. A rule is due to be proposed by the end of September.

The EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have said they’re evaluating average annual fuel-economy improvements of 2 percent to 7 percent for each automaker’s fleet of vehicles sold in the U.S. The proposal may force automakers to more than double average fuel efficiency to as much as 62 miles per gallon by 2025.

Former EPA administrators Christine Todd Whitman, Russell Train, Bill Reilly and Bill Ruckelshaus were among the 15 people who signed the letter.