AUTO LOBBYISTS REV UP FOR FUEL FIGHT.

As it gets ready to release a much anticipated report on national energy strategy, the Bush Administration is sending mixed signals to automakers on one of the industry's most important positions: opposition to new mandates that would toughen fuel-economy standards.

Two weeks ago, auto lobbyists were relieved when Vice President Dick Cheney's remarks on energy omitted any mention of raising vehicle fuel-economy standards to help cut oil consumption. But on May 8, Cheney said in a CNN interview that the Administration later this year might consider tightening the standards, depending upon the conclusions of a soon-to-be-published National Academy of Sciences study.

The White House's mixed signals followed other troubling news for the auto companies. Five Senators--three Democrats and two Republicans--earlier this month introduced a bill that by 2007 would require automakers to improve the average fuel economy of all new light trucks, including sport utility vehicles, by about 7 miles per gallon.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, say their bill to boost the corporate average fuel-economy, or CAFE, standards could save the country 1 million barrels of oil per day, cut annual oil imports by 10 percent, and prevent 240 million toils of carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming. (The bill's co-sponsors are Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine; Jack Reed, D-R.I.; and Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y.)

Auto companies are revving up their lobbying engines to stop the measure, because light trucks account for almost half of all…