During the fight around the 2007 Energy Bill, The National Environmental Trust (NET), at the head of a large coalition of the nation's major environmental organizations, was struggling to get a 35mpg CAFE automobile fuel efficiency standards into the bill over the threat of a White House veto if Democrats insisted on keeping that provision.

Though successful in its public awareness campaigns, NET hit a political stumbling block in August of 2007 when the 35mpg CAFE standards they were pushing became a battle point for the Bush Administration. The White House, under pressure from corporate interests, chiefly the automotive industry, chose to draw a line in the sand threatening to veto the bill if Democrats kept the raised CAFE standards in the bill.