THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
National Academy of Sciences
National Academy of Engineering
Institute of Medicine
National Research Council
January 14, 2002
The Honorable Jeffrey W.Runge
Administrator
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation
400 7th Street, SW, Room 5320 Washington, DC 20590
Dear Dr. Runge:
We are pleased to deliver this letter report to you. It assesses the methodology used to estimate the potential for fuel economy gains in the National Research Council’s (NRC) report Effectiveness and Impact of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards, which was released in prepublication form in July 2001.
The NRC undertook this additional effort because, following the July 2001 release of the CAFE report, we heard criticism from some parties that the methodology was fundamentally flawed. This letter report confirms that the methodology was quite valid. The committee that prepared the CAFE report continued to refine its analysis, and the estimates are slightly different, but the conclusions and recommendations are essentially unchanged. We have incorporated these refinements (and letter report itself) into the final CAFE report, which we expect to deliver by about the end of January.
We plan to release this letter report to the public at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, January 16. At that time, copies will also be made available to news reporters, and the report will be posted on the National Academies web site.