WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday approved the biggest increase in vehicle fuel-economy standards since gasoline cost less than a dollar a gallon, in a sweeping energy bill that is headed for a showdown in the Senate and a possible veto from President Bush.
The measure would require a 40% increase in fuel efficiency for new cars and light trucks by 2020, for a fleetwide average of 35 miles per gallon, and would be the first congressional raising of the standards since they were established in 1975.
The bill is the Democrats' first major effort to attack global warming and U.S. dependence on foreign oil since they won control of Congress a year ago.
The 235-181 vote came a day after a Senate panel advanced a separate measure that would cap greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, manufacturing facilities and other sources.
"Today marks the dawn of a future with less dependence on foreign oil, more renewable energy and a safer climate," Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming, said during debate on the House bill.
"This bill marks a turning point away from America's untenable path of reliance on dirty fossil fuels that pollute our planet and link us to dangerous foreign regimes."
But the bill faces trouble in the narrowly divided Senate and a White House veto threat because of provisions -- supported by environmentalists but opposed by industry groups -- that would repeal oil industry tax breaks and require utilities to generate 15% of their electricity by 2020 from cleaner sources, such as the sun and wind.
In a statement after the vote, the Bush administration chastised Democratic leaders for pushing a "partisan bill" they knew had "no chance of being signed into law." The White House expressed hope the Senate would take a "more cooperative approach."
Sen. Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he would also oppose the measure as written.
The 1,055-page bill includes major initiatives and scores of smaller ones. It would mandate a fivefold increase -- to 36 billion gallons by 2022 -- in the amount of domestic alternative fuels, such as ethanol, that must be added to the nation's gasoline supply. And it would promote energy- efficient lightbulbs and provide a tax incentive for biking to work.
