Bush to ask Americans to slash petrol consumption

In his first State of the Union address to a Democratic-controlled Congress, US President George Bush is asking Americans to cut gasoline consumption by up to 20% by 2017.

Bush envisions the goal being achieved primarily through a sharp escalation in the amount of ethanol and other alternative fuels that the federal government would mandate to be produced.

The rest of the fuel use reduction is to come from raising fuel economy standards for passenger cars, Joel Kaplan, White House deputy chief of staff, told reporters in a briefing before Bush’s speech tonight to a joint session of Congress.

The president is proposing to set the amount of ethanol and other alternative fuels that must be mixed into the fuel supply at 35 billion gallons by 2017, up from 7.5 billion gallons in 2012.

He also wants to expand the standard to include not just ethanol but a wide range of oil alternatives, such as biodiesel, methanol, butanol and hydrogen, Kaplan said.

The other piece of Bush’s energy proposal is something he has unsuccessfully asked Congress for in the past: the ability to rewrite mileage rules for new car fleets.

The White House calls it a safe way to improve car mileage, but some critics suggest it could spur automakers to instead produce more gas guzzlers.