US President George W. Bush, facing mounting disquiet over global warming and sky-high fuel prices, on Monday ordered his government to slash the US' dependence on foreign oil.
Bush said his directive to cut gasoline usage by 20 percent in the next 10 years will make the US "more secure for generations to come," help economic growth and safeguard the environment.
The so-called "20 in 10" plan was first laid out in Bush's State of the Union speech in January, seeking to slash oil imports from the restive Middle East and make US energy supply less vulnerable to terrorism.
Since then, the administration has come under new pressure from a landmark Supreme Court ruling last month that said the federal government must take action under the Clean Air Act against greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.
Bush presented proposals for Congress and ordered regulatory action from his cabinet members in charge of transportation, energy, agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency.
New regulations must be in force by the end of next year, he said, when the Bush administration will be in its dying days.
But administrative steps "are not a substitute for effective legislation," Bush said in an appeal to the Democratic-led Congress.
However, many Democrats have accused Bush of being in thrall to big energy companies, which are accused of gouging US consumers as prices at fuel pumps rocket.
On Monday, the average national price of unleaded regular gasoline jumped to US$0.81 per liter over the weekend, the highest average it has recorded, the American Automobile Association (AAA) said. That shattered the previous national benchmark of US$0.8095 per liter on Sept. 5, 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, AAA said.
Environmentalists said that the new fuel economy standards urged by Bush would still leave US cars and trucks lagging behind European -- and even Chinese -- standards of energy efficiency.
"President Bush has finally acted, but his plan is weak and lacks a road map to achieve energy independence while cutting global warming pollution," said Kit Batten, head of environmental policy at the Center for American Progress.
Some 78 percent of Americans think steps should be taken to counter the effects of global warming right away, a New York Times/CBS News poll late last month showed.
US Representative Dick Lugar, calling for "radically" higher mileage standards, said that Bush's attempts to combat US energy dependence were "barely registering."
Bush has refused to adopt the Kyoto treaty on global warming, arguing against its economic burden. However, he said the "harmful impact" on the environment underpinned his energy initiative.
Bush urged Congress to pass legislation setting fuel economy standards that would result in quintupling the current consumption of renewable and alternative fuels to 133 billion liters by 2017.
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