The Power Pack.

It takes a slap upside the head to get Congress to pay attention to America's oil addiction. Spurred by record-high gas and heating-oil prices, a brutal hurricane season, and escalating criticism of our role in Iraq, legislators on both sides of the aisle are finally promoting innovative bills designed to reduce the nation's demand for oil.

Clean-energy legislation is rolling off the line as fast as new hybrid vehicles, like Ford's Escape SUV.

Late last year, a flurry of energy proposals emerged from both chambers of Congress, some spearheaded by friends of the environmental community, including Democratic senators Joe Lieberman (Conn.), Barack Obama (Ill.), and Maria Cantwell (Wash.), Other efforts garnered support from more-surprising players, including GOP senators Sam Brownback (Kans.), Norm Coleman (Minn.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), and Jeff Sessions (Ala.).

All of the bills call for substantial increases in funding or tax incentives to spur clean-energy innovation, and some require reductions in oil usage. But only one includes improvements in corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards for automobiles, a defining clement of many environmentalists' energy-efficiency strategy. That bipartisan bill, introduced by Representatives Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), has been endorsed by the Sierra Club. Dubbed the Energy for Our Future Act, it would boost CAFE standards from 25 mpg to 40 mpg by 2016, thereby saving 4 million barrels of oil a day (20 percent of our current demand). It would also jack up the penalty for violating the standards and expand the scope of CAFE to include vehicles that weigh up to 10,000 pounds.

By not addressing CAFE, the remaining clean-energy bills have had to resort to creative legislating to meet their goals. Obama, a past supporter of tightening CAFE standards, dropped any mention of it in the Health Care for Hybrids Act he introduced last November. In exchange for exempting U.S. automakers from paying billions in healthcare costs to retired employees (a burden Detroit has long protested), his bill requires them to devote at least half of the savings to the development of alternative-fuel and energy-efficient vehicles.

Obama also teamed up with Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) to introduce a bill that would require all vehicles sold in the United States to be able to run on both gasoline and biofuels within ten years, and a proposal mandating the annual production of 2 billion gallons of nonpetroleum diesel fuel by 2015. Both bills set specific targets but leave the means of achieving them undetermined.

Similarly nonprescriptive is the Vehicle and Fuel Choices for American Security Act, introduced by Lieberman and Senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) with backing from five Republicans. It aims for the White House and its agencies to reduce oil consumption by 2.5 million barrels a day within a decade, and 10 million barrels a day by 2031. The bill would also create fuel-economy standards for heavy-duty trucks, loan guarantees for hybrid-vehicle production, and subsidies for alternative-fuel development and mass-transit systems.

Why has CAFE been sidelined in so many cases even though energy is shaping up to be a front-burner issue in the 2006 and 2008 elections? Dems and Republicans alike have dismissed it as a political stumbling block. Last summer, nearly three-quarters of the Senate voted against an amendment to the energy bill increased by Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) that would have slightly increased fuel-economy standards. Senators Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.), both 2008 presidential hopefuls, were among the nay votes â€" an effort to sustain potential campaign support from Detroit.

But CAFE is still there in spirit, says Dan Becker, director of the Sierra Club's global-warming program. The ambitious energy-conservation goals that have been gaining traction on Capitol Hill, he maintains, will eventually bring back a discussion of CAFE standards. "As soon as you implement a strong, fixed target for reducing oil use, stricter fuel standards will inevitably come into play," Becker says. "Incentives alone won't do the trick."

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By Amanda Griscom Little