a midway bikelog

it’s about flippin’ time

35 miles per gallon for cars, SUVs and pickup trucks by 2020

Senate passes energy bill, boosting mileage standards - CNN.com

I don’t particularly agree with the ethanol side of the bill, but the improved gas mileage is nothing to sneeze at, since it applies to the worse offenders (SUVs and trucks). I hope that the ethanol requirements lead to some momentum toward better sources than field corn, which is energy-hungry to produce and incredibly hard on the land.

The bill’s provisions require half of the new cars be capable of running on 85 percent ethanol or biodiesel fuels by 2015. It’ll be interesting to see if this precipitates a major shift by manufacturers toward diesel engines running biodiesel as a quicker & easier way to conform to the standards. A majority of European cars use diesel engines, and increasingly efficient engines, thanks to ever-stronger standards there. I know of a German family who just sold their ~6 year-old VW van because the emissions fee for it was increasing 8x for next year. It seems natural that VW and others will take the lead on this in the US market. Despite the big push for ethanol, diesel engines already have the edge on efficiency the only real knock is the particulate emissions. With this sort of incentive though, the soot emissions problem with diesels is sure to get some quick attention.