CAFE Same Old Same Old

Earlier this week I linked to Robert Farago at The Truth About Cars. He editorialized:

"There is no reason to believe that the new [Corporate Average Fuel Economy] CAFE regs will be any more stringently applied than existing laws, or if they are, that manufacturers will be any less likely to game the system to allow them to build the more profitable vehicles that people want to buy."

Today Autoblog quotes Edmund's and points out the gap between CAFE gas mileage and EPA gas mileage:

"a vehicle that scores an EPA combined rating of 29 miles per gallon actually contributes 39 MPG to its manufacturer's CAFE average. There are 29 car models and 36 truck models that already achieve the new standard, and about a third of the cars and half of the trucks are produced by a domestic automaker."

To paraphrase Edmund's - That's a gap big enough to accomodate a fleet of SUVs. So what was all the fuss earlier this week about conserving gas and saving the planet? Hope and change?