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In testimony given today before the
Senate Commerce Committee, a Toyota executive called for fairness, effectiveness
and adequate engineering lead time in any changes made to the Corporate Average
Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.
Quoting a report on the CAFE system prepared for Congress by a National Academy
of Sciences (NAS) panel, Jim Olson, senior vice president of Toyota Motor North
America, said "the NAS report says that any changes should not 'impose
higher burdens on those manufacturers who had already done the most to reduce
energy consumption'.
"Specifically, NAS said that to require each manufacturer to improve its
own CAFE by a defined percentage - the so-called Uniform Percentage Increase
(UPI) approach - 'punishes those who have done the mostand seems
to convey a moral lesson that it is better to lag than to lead," Olson
continued.
Olson also stated that UPI would frustrate effective energy-conservation and
environmental gains by causing higher-fuel economy vehicles to be replaced by
lower-mileage vehicles from producers with lower fuel-economy targets. In longer,
separately submitted written testimony, Olson noted that some industry experts
have said that UPI stands for Unwarranted Punishment of Innovation.
While Toyota improves the fuel-efficiency of each new generation of its many
models, Olson called for Congress and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA), which administers the CAFE program, to find ways to better align government
desires and market demand.
"Although automakers improve product-by-product fuel efficiency, consumers
determine the aggregate fuel economy of the 16 million new vehicles sold here
each year by what they choose to buy," he said. "Therefore, in shaping
future energy policy, the burden of addressing fuel economy should not be placed
solely on manufacturers. We have a large role to play, but Congress can help
by passing incentive legislation to bring the consumer into the fuel-economy
equation."
Olson also noted that NHTSA -- not Congress -- is best-qualified to deal with
the complexities of improving the CAFE system and that "any future program
must recognize the many years required to develop new technology, incorporate
it into vehicles and bring them to market - a process that cannot be turned
on a dime without severe consequences."
