U.S. finishes last in fuel economy
TEXT OF STORY
Scott Jagow: Don’t look now, but oil prices are setting records again. Crude is trading at $78 a barrel this morning, just pennies from the record set yesterday. Traders are worried about supply, and the U.S. has something else to worry about: the fuel efficiency of its cars. Lisa Napoli has more.
Lisa Napoli: While Congress is working to figure out how to increase American fuel efficiency for the first time in over 20 years, the International Council on Clean Transportation crunched the numbers from eight countries and found:
Drew Kodjak: At the bottom of the heap is, unfortunately, the United States.
Study co-author Drew Kodjak says Europe and Japan already have high mile per gallon rules, and they’re gonna get even better.
Kodjak: Out to 2012, Europe is projected to have a 49 MPG passenger fleet. And Japan a 47 in 2015.
Even China’s better than the American 27.5 miles a gallon.
Kodjak: So certainly a very big difference between the leaders and the laggers.
The technology to make more fuel-efficient cars has been around for years. Meanwhile, oil imports have doubled since the ’80s.
In Los Angeles, I’m Lisa Napoli for Marketplace.
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