CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Politics involves the art of turning necessity into virtue, of transforming the inevitable into noble action, all the while concealing darker and more troubling truths.

Consider last week's announcement by the Bush administration that it will push car companies to accelerate implementation of new federal fuel efficiency standards approved by Congress last year.

Under what might be called the administration's "Urge Program," car companies now are being asked to increase the average maximum feasible fuel efficiency of all new cars and trucks sold in the United States by 25 percent by 2015. That works out to an improvement of 4.5 percent annually during the targeted 2011-2015 model-year cycle.

Put another way, that means light trucks -- vans, minivans, pickups, sport-utility vehicles -- must average 28.6 miles per gallon by 2015, up from a mandated average of 22.5 mpg today. It means cars must get 35.7 mpg, up from a current standard of 27.5 mpg.

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