Automobiles account for a large portion of the nation's energy consumption, and environmentalists have long supported strong auto fuel efficiency standards.

In this vote, Sen. Dole (R-KS) offered a motion to table (kill) Sen. Evans' (R-WA) amendment to express the sense of the Senate that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should not roll back the fuel efficiency standard that passenger cars must meet for the 1986 and subsequent model years.

Although this Sense of the Senate resolution would not have required the Administration to abandon its announced intention to roll back fleet averages from 27.5 to 26 miles per gallon, it would have added political pressure against such a move. Auto makers had already been given ten years to meet the standards, and Chrysler Corp., which invested billions of dollars to produce fuel efficient cars, had protested the rollback as allowing GM and Ford to "reap a windfall for scoffing at the law."

Motion to table was accepted, 52-39; July 29, 1985. NO is the pro-environmental vote. (Dole Motion to table Evans Amendment, S. 410, Conservation Service Reform Act.) Subsequently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rolled back the fleet average efficiency standard.