History and Description of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Motor Vehicle Fuel Economy Program

摘要

This report describes the history of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) fuel economy program from the early 1970's up to and including the 1984 model year. (Beginning with the 1985 model year program significant changes were made to the program to improve the accuracy of the label values. These changes are not addressed in this document.) The fuel economy program is conducted at the Motor Vehicle Emission Laboratory (MVEL) located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The energy crisis of the early 1970's brought into focus the need for a reliable source of automobile fuel economy information. Because the EPA was already testing representative vehicles from all manufacturers for exhaust emissions compliance the task of generating fuel economy values on these vehicles was straight forward. Congress gave EPA the responsibility for establishing a mandatory fuel economy program beginning with the 1977 model year. This report describes the methodology used to group a manufacturer's product line into representative subgroups for testing and calculation purposes. The resulting data are used to calculate new car label values, each individual manufacturer's Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE), and any potential Gas Guzzler Tax liability.