50 mpg

The average fuel economy of the nation is somewhere around 20.8 mpg [101.5 Radio news, Today's morning commute]. New Jersey uses 4.81 B gallons of fuel annually [2003 NJ Snapshots policy perspective]. If we raised fuel efficiency to 50 mpg-- not unrealistic considering the Civic Hybrid is somwhere around 52 mpg, and these are small advancements that are "economical" rather than pushing the technological limit.

So if the government mandated a minimum of 50 mpg on all vehicles, in New Jersey alone we would use almost 3 billion gallons of fuel less. At $2 per gallon, we'd save 6 billion dollars each year. But since we would be using less fuel, the price of fuel would drop, but roughly half (since we are using about half as much fuel). Wouldn't this savings alone more than make up for the cost of everyone buying a new Hybrid?