Emanuel, Markey ask for speed-up in fuel efficiency

Washington Report 2: In a letter to the Bush Administration this week, Reps. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) asked the president to pick up the pace in fuel-economy standards, as a draft EPA memo showed is possible. The memo, leaked to the Wall Street Journal, revealed that EPA staff thought that with hybrids and new technology autos could average better than 35 mpg between 2020 and 2025. The letter from Emanuel and Markey asked for a maximum effort to reach 35 mpg by 2015. (The CAFE standards passed by Congress last year mandated 35 by 2020, with some allowance for flex-fuel cars that would lower the real amount to about 34 mpg). Some Congressmen fear the EPA administrator will ignore the staff recommendations, as he has done in other matters in the past. (Source: E&E News PM)