2.2 more MPG by 2016 - now that's change we can believe in!

Our government is finally pressing ahead with one of the biggest no-brainer policies resisted by the Bushies - higher mpg standards for cars and trucks. But read the fine print, and it's clear this is only a first step in the right direction. While the 2016 phase-in date is probably necessary to make sure we don't force companies to make big costly changes in the middle of a depression, the bigger problem is that SUVs once again escape into a legal black hole:

While the 30 percent increase would be an average for both cars and light trucks, the percentage increase in cars would be much greater, according to the New York Times, rising from the current 27.5 mpg standard to 42 mpg starting in 2016. The average for light trucks would rise from 24 mpg to 26.2 mpg.

This is not good. One of the reasons to raise mpg standards is to bring American consumer choices into line with consumer choices in the rest of the rich world, in order to stop forcing U.S.-based car companies to choose between the U.S. and world markets. Allowing SUVs to get away with 26.2 mpg while forcing sedans to get 42 mpg is an implicit subsidy to companies that sell SUVs in America. That forces U.S. carmakers to choose between domestic market share and international competitiveness. If they make the same choice they did over the last 20 years, they'll just keep pumping out SUVs while Toyota and Honda power ahead with hybrids and other cars-of-the-future.

Oh yeah, and letting SUVs off the hook is of course bad for the environment too. About half of all vehicles in the U.S. are SUVs or trucks, and a 2.2 mpg increase over 7 years is going to do precisely diddly to make that half more eco-friendly.

I'd be a lot more optimistic if the Obama administration closed this glaring loophole in our energy policy. But doing things this way does have an upside: it means that the next big spike in the price of gas will hit SUV owners much, much harder than car owners. Hopefully, seeing their sedan-driving neighbors cruise cheerfully through months of $4 gas will convince America's SUV owners that it's really time to give up the ghost.