To: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood

Subject: Ensure fuel economy standards meet 35 mpg goal

Dear Administrator Jackson and Secretary LaHood,

Thank you for your combined efforts to implement a national clean car standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2016.

The final clean car rule must guard against any potential loopholes or other efforts to weaken the effectiveness of the standards. Significant past loopholes, such as allowing automakers to reclassify cars as "light trucks" to decrease fuel economy requirements and incorporating weight thresholds that allowed gas guzzlers like the Hummer to evade all fuel economy regulations, helped to create the current environmental and economic predicament the auto industry finds itself in.

A strong, loophole-free national standard would provide consumers with more clean vehicle choices, save drivers money at the pump, reduce global warming pollutions from automobiles, and allow the struggling auto industry to emerge as the model for a clean energy economy.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Transportation (DOT) are currently finalizing new regulations that would spur the creation of an American automobile fleet that averages approximately 35 miles-per-gallon by 2016.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, these new standards could save drivers $32 billion in 2020 based on a gas price of $2.50 per gallon - even after we pay the cost of vehicle technology improvements. If gas prices spike to $4 a gallon again - we'd save $61 billion in 2020!

Please urge the EPA and DOT to ensure the new vehicle standards are as strong as possible and loophole-free.