President Bush signed the Energy Bill into law today.  The bill aims to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil by raising fuel-efficiency standards for automobiles, increasing the use of biofuels five-fold, phasing out sales of the incandescent light bulb, providing incentives for alternative energy development, and decreasing energy consumption by the federal government.

The biggest accomplishment of the bill being heralded is the change in the minimum fuel-efficiency standard for passenger vehicles, which requires new auto fleets to average 35 miles a gallon by 2020, a 40% percent increase from today's 25-mile average.

The new standard is the first to be passed by Congress since 1975, although measures to increase fuel efficiency were introduced by Democrats but defeated by the Republican majority in 2001, 2003, and 2005.

One thing to note: the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard applies to a fleet of vehicles and not to any single vehicle.  That means the suite of autos produced by manufacturers like Ford must have an average fuel efficiency rating of 35 miles per gallon between all the cars they produce.   So gas guzzles will remain on the road so long as people keep buying them.  To compensate for say, a Hummer's 8-10 miles per gallon, GM will have to increase the number of fuel efficient cars they produce...12 years from now. 

By 2020, the measure could reduce U.S. oil use by 1.1 million barrels a day, more than half the oil exported by Kuwait or Venezuela and equivalent of taking 28 million of today's vehicles off the road.

To secure passage for the bill, a contentious portion of the it that would have reduced tax breaks for oil and gas companies and extended breaks for wind and solar projects was omitted. 

Most environmentalists are happy with the bill overall, although some, like Energy Justice, argue that promoting ethanol use will "continue to drive up food prices, while contributing to water and soil depletion, the spread of biotech crops, polluted ethanol refinery communities and will further our reliance on imported fuels and fertilizers, bringing on rainforest destruction and starvation in poor countries." 

Energy Justice calls for the widespread promotion of electric vehicles that run off energy stored from non-polluting energy sources like wind, solar, and geothermal power.   

White House Energy Bill fact sheet