Sen. John Kerry, in what his office called a major energy policy address, said in a speech Jan. 22 that he wants the federal government's Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards raised "as far and as fast as we can." Kerry (D-Mass.), a senior member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, is leading the panel's effort to write a fuel economy provision for the energy bill that Democratic leaders plan to bring to the full Senate for debate in the next few weeks. The Kerry-backed bill is being presented as an alternative to Bush administration policy. Its fate is uncertain in the narrowly divided Congress. Kerry declined to say exactly what he believed the new CAFE fuel economy standards should be, but he did acknowledge that any new standards should be balanced by "the legitimate concerns of the domestic automobile industry and the limits on what is technically and economically feasible." The committee has additional hearings on the issue Thursday, Jan. 24, and Tuesday, Jan. 29.