Bush signs law requiring greater energy efficiency

WASHINGTON -- Gas guzzlers could become relics of the past and farmers may rival oil companies in producing motor fuels under a new energy law. Consumers also will save electricity -- and money -- from more efficient refrigerators, furnaces and dishwashers.

There will be improved efficiency labeling on TVs and computers. And the office building of the future may need less energy and rely more on wind, solar or biomass, becoming zero emitters of greenhouse gases.

That's the future outlined by some energy experts as a result of new legislation President Bush signed Wednesday.

Automakers now will be required to achieve an industrywide average fuel efficiency for cars, sport utility vehicles and small trucks of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, a 40 percent jump and the first increase in the federal requirement in 32 years.

The bill also stands to change the fuel motorists will use to power those cars, requiring a sixfold increase in the use of ethanol instead of gasoline. And it revs up the push for efficiency on everything from light bulbs and furnaces to commercial buildings.

Bush said these measures are "a major step toward reducing our dependence on oil" and addressing global warming.

"Taken together, all these measures will help us improve our environment," Bush said at an Energy Department signing ceremony, adding that they "could reduce projected carbon dioxide emissions by billions of metric tons." Carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is the leading greenhouse gas, trapping the sun's heat in the atmosphere.