Safe Climate Campaign

...Ultimately, the government and automakers settled on 54.5 miles per gallon. "It could have been a very strong standard," says Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign. In the end, "it is a reasonably strong standard. The auto industry was pleased that it wasn't any higher and the environmentalists were pleased it wasn't lower."

But 54.5 is a bit misleading. Many cars--perhaps most--won't go 54.5 miles on a gallon of gas. The auto industry "won a lot of loopholes," Becker says. Electric cars and hybrids, for instance, are rated at 99 miles per gallon, which will pull the fleet average up, according to Doniger...

...The auto companies all face the same problems--state pollution regulations, rising fuel prices, lost lawsuits, declining consumer demand for gas guzzlers--and were willing to make concessions. "We don't have the leverage yet to force utilities to compromise," says Becker.