Washington - The US Senate approved an increase in fuel standards for all vehicles by 2020 as part of a series of energy- related measures passed late Thursday. The energy bill, passed shortly before midnight, also calls for a significant boost to the production of ethanol and other renewable fuels, though Republicans succeeded earlier in the day in blocking a series of new taxes on oil companies that would have gone to promoting renewable alternatives.
In the first changes to US fuel-economy standards in nearly 20 years, the bill would raise by about 40 per cent the so-called Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard - which applies to cars, sports utility vehicles and pick-up trucks - by the year 2020.
Senators from car-manufacturing states in both parties had strongly opposed the adoption of more stringent fuel standards, but a bipartisan compromise reached earlier Thursday gave proponents enough votes to override attempts to block the bill's passage.
The legislation also includes new energy-saving standards for homes and makes price gouging by oil and gas companies a federal crime - a proposal pushed by Democrats which reports last week said President George W Bush might consider using his veto over.
Bush earlier Thursday urged Congress to pass a "realistic" bill on energy, though he said the legislation being debated fell "far short" of his own goals.
The bill, which passed 65-27, must now go to the lower House of Representatives.
Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in a statement said the bill "starts America on a path toward reducing our reliance on oil by increasing the nation's use of renewable fuels and, for the first time in decades, significantly improving the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks."
Environmental groups also welcomed the legislation - especially the tough fuel-economy standards.
"We are thrilled," Kevin Curtis of the PEW Campaign for Fuel Efficiency told the New York Times.
