The new fuel economy standards for sport utility vehicles, minivans and pickup trucks, announced by the Bush administration, are better than nothing. But not by much.

Instead of a strong mandate matching President Bush's bold declaration that the United States is "addicted" to oil, the administration has set only minimal improvement in gas mileage for the nation's most popular motor vehicles. The corporate average fuel economy requirement for light trucks, the umbrella term for SUVs, minivans and pickups, will rise by just 11 percent, from 21.6 miles per gallon in 2006 to 24 mpg in 2011.

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta says the new standards will save 10.7 billion gallons of gasoline. That's a huge number at first glance, but it shrinks against the fact that U.S. motorists burned up 140 billion gallons last year.

Obviously, the administration is more interested in rhetoric than reality. To further underscore how nothing it does in regard to energy or the environment can be taken at face value, the fine print of the new CAFE regulations also includes a prohibition against greenhouse gas emission standards for motor vehicles that have been set by California and 10 other states. This is one more strike in favor of blanket -- and weaker -- national standards for rising carbon dioxide pollution, a contradictory move from an administration that used to rail against "one size fits all" regulation.

If Mr. Bush was truly intent on meeting the challenges presented by global warming and competition with China and India for a limited world oil supply, he would be setting meaningful mileage improvement.

Technology can produce cleaner and more fuel-efficient vehicles, but the industry has largely focused its innovation on more powerful engines. Huge SUVs may be an exciting diversion for consumers, but they will become museum pieces in the energy crunch of the future.