Detroit's automakers should raise gas mileage requirements by 40 percent or face extinction, a key U.S. senator said Tuesday in a tongue-lashing of the industry for its failure to embrace fuel efficiency in the past.
Led by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, four U.S. senators didn't mince words in touting a proposal to drastically raise fuel economy standards by model year 2017, a move they argued would save America 2.5 million barrels of Middle Eastern oil a day.
"You know the automotive industry fought seat belts, if you can believe it," said Feinstein, a Democrat. "If the industry doesn't respond, doesn't mutate, it'll go just the same way the dinosaur went."
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