Russ Feingold: “I am voting in favor of the Bond-Levin Amendment, and I want to explain my views in detail. Fuel efficiency is a…”

“I am voting in favor of the Bond-Levin Amendment, 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. Some will argue that my vote for Levin-Bond is a vote against increasing Corporate Average Fuel Economy, CAFE, standards; I do not share that view. The Bond-Levin amendment seeks to renew the Department of Transportation's role in setting CAFE standards acting through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA. It requires NHTSA to set new standards by a time certain. If Congress does not act today to try to restore normalcy to the NHTSA process, Congress will always either block or act to set CAFE standards, every 20 years or so, when the political will is sufficient to do so. It will never become part of the normal process of reviewing and incrementally improving fuel efficiency for automobiles, as Congress originally intended when it passed the CAFE law in the 1970s.”