Russ Feingold: “I voted in favor of the Bond-Levin amendment regarding CAFE standards, and I want to explain my views in detail. Fuel…”

“I voted in favor of the Bond-Levin amendment regarding CAFE standards, and I want to explain my views in detail. Fuel efficiency is a critically important issue for our country, for my home State of Wisconsin, and for our future. I remain committed to the goal that significant improvements in automobile and light truck fuel efficiency can be achieved over an appropriate time frame. My vote for the Levin-Bond is entirely consistent with that goal. The Levin-Bond amendment seeks to renew the Department of Transportation's role in setting CAFE standards, acting through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA. If Congress does not act to try to restore normalcy to the NHTSA process, we will keep having these fights which Congress attempts to either block or set CAFE standards, every 20 years or so, when the political will is sufficient to do so. NHTSA will never be able to carry out the normal process of reviewing and incrementally improving fuel efficiency for automobiles and light trucks, as Congress originally intended when it passed the CAFE law in the 1970s. Both interest groups battling over the CAFE issue, the auto manufacturers and the environmental community, have switched their positions in this debate on this bill over the past several years. The auto industry, which once wanted CAFE perpetually frozen with a rider to an appropriations bill, now supports the Levin amendment.…”