In the mid-1970s, Congress enacted Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards (CAFE) in order to increase the fuel economy of automobiles. However, there is little evidence that CAFE saves fuel, and research indicates that it costs lives.

Because American auto makers must meet CAFE standards for passenger cars, currently 27.5 miles per gallon, averaged across their entire production:

• People who buy large cars in effect pay more because auto makers subsidize sales of smaller cars to ensure they meet the CAFE average.
• Because smaller cars are cheaper and get more miles to the gallon, drivers are encouraged to drive more, and this "rebound effect" partially offsets the energy savings CAFE is supposed to create.
• In addition, since new large cars are beyond many drivers' price range, they keep their older large cars on the road longer, and these less fuel efficient cars also offset energy savings.
• However, many drivers who want larger vehicles have simply switched to vans and mini-vans, which are under far more lenient CAFE standards than cars.

New safety features, such as air bags, are also supposed to make newer cars safer. However, one study shows that air bags provide about the same increase in safety as an additional 485 pounds of vehicle weight -- and auto makers have met CAFE standards by reducing the average weight of cars by about 500 pounds. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, on average every 10 percent reduction in weight reduces fuel consumption by about 8 percent.

This weight reduction mandated by CAFE standards, according to Harvard University researchers, has caused about 2,200 to 3,900 additional deaths in auto accidents per year.

Source: Sam Kazman (Competitive Enterprise Institute), "Fuel Economy Standards Can Kill Motorists," Consumers' Research, Vol. 79, No. 1, January 1996.

Two decades ago during the oil shortage, Congress imposed fuel economy standards on cars. Auto manufacturers were directed to increase the average miles per gallon of fuel used by vehicles, and the standard was eventually doubled.

But in order to achieve this mandate, manufacturers had to drastically downsize the models in their fleet. Since smaller cars are less safe than larger ones, this has led to thousands of additional highway deaths per year.

• According to data from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, today's "large" car is as small or smaller than a 1976 "compact," when measured by wheelbase, weight, or engine size.
• Back in 1976, a large domestic car had a wheelbase of 123 inches; a midsized car, 116; a compact car, 112; a subcompact, 99.5.
• By 1989, a domestic "large" car had a average wheelbase of only 113 inches; "midsize" cars, 106; compacts, under 100.

So all passenger cars sold today are compacts or smaller -- only called "large" or "midsize."

Although customers wanted larger cars when oil was decontrolled in the early 1980s and gasoline prices tumbled, Detroit was forced in the opposite direction.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the death rate for cars with a wheelbase less than 95 inches is more than four times the rate for cars with a wheelbase of more than 114 inches.

Studies suggest that the shift toward smaller cars has resulted in thousands of additional highway deaths per year -- even in the face of better safety features.

Source: Perspective, "Silent Killer," Investor's Business Daily, January 30, 1996.

• Over the past 75 years, while average highway speeds have increased one-half mile per hour per year, from 30 mph to 65 mph, the highway fatality rate has declined by 95 percent.
  
  
• The death rate fell from 25 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 1920 to 3.6 in 1974, 2.3 in 1988 and 1.7 in 1995.
  
  
• Since some states began raising speeds on rural interstate highways to 65 in 1987, the number of deaths has risen -- but when the increase in miles traveled is calculated, the fatality rates in those states have continued to decline.