Bush plans to cutdown gasoline consumption

Washington, Jan 24: President George W Bush presented to the US Congress a plan to cut down the country's massive gasoline consumption by 20 per cent during the next ten years to reduce America's dependence on foreign energy sources.

''For too long, our nation has been dependent on oil. America's dependence leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes, and to terrorists - who could cause huge disruptions of oil shipments, raise the price of oil, and do great harm to our economy,'' he said in his state of the union address last night.

The plan envisages raising the fuel efficiency of passenger cars and light trucks by an estimated 4 per cent annually.

The plan highlighted increasing the supply of renewable and alternative fuels by setting a mandatory fuels standard to require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels in 2017 -- nearly five times the 2012 targeted now in law. In 2017, this will displace 15 per cent of projected annual gasoline use.

It called for reforming and modernising Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for cars and extending the current light truck rule. In 2017, this will reduce projected annual gasoline use by up to 8.5 billion gallons, a further 5 per cent reduction that, in combination with increasing the supply of renewable and alternative fuels, will bring the total reduction in projected annual gasoline use to 20 per cent.

The plan will help confront climate change by stopping the projected growth of carbon dioxide emissions from cars, light trucks in ten Years.

The steps proposed in the plan to strengthen US energy security included stepping up domestic oil production in environmentally sensitive ways; doubling the current capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to 1.5 billion barrels by 2027 and reducing gasoline consumption through the growth of alternative fuel sources.

The President's Plan also called for facilitating the growth of renewable and alternative fuel sources by increasing the size and expanding the scope of the current renewable fuel standard (RFS).

Under current law, fuel blenders must use 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuels in 2012. Under the President's plan, the fuel standard will be set at 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels in 2017. This will displace 15 per cent of projected annual gasoline use in 2017.

The President's proposal will also increase the scope of the current Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), expanding it to an Alternative Fuel Standard (AFS).

The AFS will include sources such as comethanol, cellulosic ethanol, biodiesel, methanol, butanol, hydrogen and alternative fuels.

UNI