average fuel economy standards for light trucks model years 2008-2011 52 pages in english . this notice proposes to reform the structure of the corporate average fuel economy cafe program for light trucks and proposes to establish higher cafe standards for model year my 2008-2011 light trucks. reforming the cafe program would enable it to achieve larger fuel savings while enhancing safety and preventing adverse economic consequences. during a transition period of mys 2008-2010 manufacturers may comply with cafe standards established under the reformed structure reformed cafe or with standards established in the traditional way unreformed cafe . this will permit manufacturers to gain experience with the reformed cafe standards. in my 2011 all manufacturers would be required to comply with a reformed cafe standard. the reform is based on vehicle size. under reformed cafe fuel economy standards are restructured so that they are based on a measure of vehicle size called footprint the product of multiplying a vehicles wheelbase by its track width. vehicles would be divided into footprint categories each representing a different range of footprint. a target level of average fuel economy is proposed for each footprint category with smaller footprint light trucks expected to achieve more fuel economy and larger ones less. each manufacturer would still be required to comply with a single overall average fuel economy level for each model year of production. a particular manufacturers compliance obligation for a model year is calculated as the harmonic average of the fuel economy targets in each size category weighted by the distribution of manufacturers production volumes across the size categories. the proposed unreformed cafe standards are 22.5 miles per gallon mpg for my 2008 23.1 mpg for my 2009 and 23.5 mpg for my 2010. the reformed cafe standards for those model years would be set at levels intended to ensure that the industry-wide costs of the reformed standards are roughly equivalent to the industry-wide costs of the unreformed cafe standards in those model years. for my 2011 the reformed cafe standard would be set at the level that maximizes net benefits accounting for unquantified benefits and costs. we believe that all of the proposed standards would be set at the maximum feasible level while accounting for technological feasibility economic practicability and other relevant factors. since a manufacturers compliance obligation for a model year under reformed cafe depends in part on its actual production in that model year the obligation cannot be calculated with absolute precision until the final production figures for that model year become known. however a manufacturer could calculate its obligation with a reasonably high degree of accuracy in advance of that model year based on its product plans for the year. prior to and during the model year the manufacturer would be able to track all of the key variables in the formula used for calculating the obligation e.g. distribution of production among the categories and vehicle fuel economy . this notice publishes estimates of the compliance obligations by manufacturer for mys 2008-2011 under reformed cafe using the fuel economy targets proposed by nhtsa and the product plans submitted to nhtsa by the manufacturers in response to a request for product plans published in december 2003. this rulemaking is mandated by the energy policy and conservation act epca which was enacted in the aftermath of the energy crisis created by the oil embargo of 1973-74. the concerns about energy security and the effects of energy prices and supply on national economic well-being that led to the enactment of epca remain alive today. sustained growth in the demand for oil worldwide coupled with tight crude oil supplies is the driving force behind the shar price increases seen over the past several years. increasingly the oil consumed in the u.s. originates in countries with political and economic situations that raise conc