On Wednesday, President Bush put the finishing touches on the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 by signing it into action. What does this mean for you? Well, this bill calls for a new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard of 35 MPG by the year 2020. In essence, this means that automotive manufacturers here in the United States, Ford included, will have to achieve a 35 MPG average across all the vehicles in their fleet. That means a vehicle such as the Ford Mustang GT, which averages 15-23 MPG, would dramatically reduce the total MPG average for the Ford fleet of vehicles as a whole. I'm reminded of the saying, you're only as strong as your weakest link.

The primary concern that has many Mustang enthusiasts up in arms is that the manufacturers might decide to do away with cars that get low mileage. Or, worse yet, reduce them to 4-cylinder versions with little or no sports car appeal. Does anyone remember The Mustang II? The Mustang went from muscle car to econo-car in the blink of an eye.

The fate of the future Mustang, and the entire direction of Detroit's focus, is now unknown. In fact, yesterday the chief engineer of the new Corvette questioned the future of his car and muscle cars in general. I can only hope they will do whatever possible to make the Mustang more fuel efficient without "dumbing it down." The Mustang has weathered many a storm over the past 40+ years. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how things turn out this time around.

That said, can I interest anyone in an electric Mustang? It's got 300 horses under the hood, can do 0-60 in 4 seconds, and has looks to match. The only downside? It takes from 3.5 to 8 hours to recharge the battery. Talk about a pit stop! Might as well stay the night!

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