The Congress passed a bill today that will raise minimum gas efficiency from 25 MPG to 35 MPG, a 40% increase by the year 2020. It also adds all kinds of incentives to producing more bio-fuels and other alternative energy producing products. When we are all busy each day with so much around us sometimes major things speed by us. This is one piece of information all consumers need to be watching. When this bill to be signed by President Bush on Wednesday at the Energy Department gets going your cost of car ownership is going to shake up like you have never seen in your lifetime. The last major change to MPG requirements was 1975 to give you an idea of how major this is.

Here is what you might expect to see. First, the good news will be better MPG’s on your new cars and trucks. Second, if this bill can achieve its’ goals, we would reduce our reliance on foreign oil by as much as 4 million barrels a day, a major shift of capital away from overseas and staying here in the U.S.  This all further reduces our dependency on other countries who control most of the worlds oil. But the bad news will be the effect possibly on the cost of your future new car as the manufacturers have already stated supporting this new standard will be difficult and costly to achieve. So while we might save at the pump, we will no doubt see higher car costs pasted onto the consumer at the inital price point. We also will see a major shift in how we buy gas, or whatever fuel type your  new car needs, you might have several types of pumps at your gas station of the future.

 I’m all for reducing dependency on foreign oil, so if I gain at the pump but have to pay more up front, it is a wash financially. So the advantage of buying energy in the U.S. versus a foreign country is worth the attempt. Now if we only could have got Congress to take back the $13 billion in subsidies to oil companies even though they make billions in profits each quarter, but I guess we should be happy with some progress after this many years.

You can read more here at yahoo: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071218/ap_on_go_co/congress_energy_15