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Obama’s DOE to spend $8M on making cars lighter
The Obama administration announced investments Monday to improve fuel economy in automobiles just days after a top House Republican accused the White House of bullying companies into accepting tougher efficiency standards.
The Department of Energy (DOE) will spend $8 million this year on seven projects that could yield stronger and lighter materials for vehicles. The DOE also requested an additional $13.75 million for the program for the next fiscal year.
The department said reducing the weight of vehicles by 10 percent could boost fuel economy anywhere from 6 to 8 percent. That could help automakers meet joint Transportation Department-Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards that expect to require cars to get 54.5 miles to the gallon by 2025, DOE said.
“With strong, lightweight materials we have an opportunity to dramatically increase vehicle fuel economy, while helping America maintain its competitive edge in automotive design and manufacturing,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Monday in a statement. “Today’s investment in new lightweight materials builds on the Obama administration’s historic fuel economy standards that are already helping drivers save money at the pump.”
House Oversight and Investigations Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) chastised Obama last week for those same fuel economy rules, which are known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.
Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) retorted that Issa and other Republicans are more responsive to oil and gas companies’ concerns than those of consumers. Markey sponsored a bill that passed Congress in 2007 that would have raised fuel economy standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2020.
Republicans have accused Obama of using the EPA to target fossil fuel companies. The CAFE standards were one of Obama’s earliest moves on the environment in the White House, and the EPA has followed them with other proposals that would limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Republicans have turned the EPA and Obama’s energy policies into a top campaign issue. Republicans claim Obama is pushing green jobs at the expense of cheaper forms of energy that could engender an economic recovery.
DOE says the private sector is putting up an additional $11 million for the lightweight materials research. Some of the projects supported by the initiative include improving modeling tools to make lighter and stronger steel composites and expediting advanced alloy development for car engines.
— This story was updated at 1:52 p.m.
