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 new-vehicle sales.

"What they're proposing is totally impractical," says Robert G. Liberatore, the chief Washington lobbyist for Daimler-Chrysler Corp. "It would decimate the auto industry and employment in it." He says the industry regards the CAFE standards, first introduced in 1975, as "a broken regulatory program that has terribly unfair impacts."

Liberatore and other Chrysler lobbyists, along with their counterparts at Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp., are strongly pressing their opposition. Auto lobbyists have met with top staffers on the Bush Administration's energy task force, including those who work for the Commerce, Transportation, and Energy Secretaries. The task force report is due for release on May 17. The lobbyists are also visiting Senate offices to shore up support and win over other Senators. To drive home their opposition, they are handing out a booklet that argues that tougher standards will cost jobs and hurt the auto industry's overall financial health.