DROPS IN THE BARREL

DROPS IN THE BARREL
Philadelphia Inquirer: Look for this political ad in 2004: President Bush and Spot the spaniel cruise the Crawford ranch in a better-mileage sport-utility vehicle, brought to you through the President's determination to reduce dependence on foreign oil.
Candidate Bush will brag that he did more than President Clinton ever did by pushing the first "big" increase in light-truck gas mileage requirements since 1987.
But the ad isn't likely to mention that the 1.5-mile-per-gallon increase over three model years, proposed last week, would fail to match what automakers already had promised to do. It won't say that the import savings amount to drops in a barrel.
The Bush administration wants to increase light-truck fuel efficiency 7 percent to 22.2 m.p.g. by 2007. Two years ago, Ford said it could do 25 percent by 2005. General Motors and Daimler-Chrysler vowed to follow.
The Bush administration's feeble move merely codifies what automakers were going to do anyway thanks to market forces. Then it has the gall to sell it as a "necessary hardship" on Detroit. The gas savings are paltry: just 2.5 billion gallons of gas a year, less than 3 percent of what the United States imports from Iraq alone.
Air pollution
This mini-move forward shouldn't stop Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and John Kerry, D-Mass., from reintroducing a steeper increase in fuel-economy standards to save significant amounts of oil and reduce air pollution. Their initial effort failed earlier this year (in part because Democrats beholden to auto-industry unions took a walk).
The National Academy of Sciences says that automakers can improve gas mileage in SUVs and minivans over the next 10 years by 20 to 40 percent without compromising safety and without impairing performance.
Overall fuel economy has retreated for 15 years, largely because of the growing popularity of SUVs and minivans, which the rules subject to less stringent standards.
Congress should close that loophole, which was created to exempt two-passenger farm pickups, not the soccer carpool. In the 1970s, only 20 percent of new vehicles sold were classified as "light trucks." Now SUVs and minivans push that number to 52 percent a year.
The SUV is the modern station wagon. Industry statistics report that nearly half of women owners use their SUVs to take children to school. SUVs should be regulated like cars, which have a fuel-economy average of 27.5 miles per gallon.
In time of looming war in the world's richest oil region, President Bush shouldn't settle for proposing so little. Congress must do more.