WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a trimmed-back energy bill yesterday that would bring higher-gas-mileage cars and SUVs into showrooms in the coming decade and fill their tanks with ethanol.

The measure was approved with strong bipartisan support 86-8 after Democrats abandoned efforts to impose billions of dollars in new taxes on the biggest oil companies, unable by one vote to overcome a Republican filibuster against the new taxes. Hawai'i Sens. Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye, both Democrats, voted for the measure.

The bill now goes to the House, where a vote is expected next week. The White House issued a statement saying President Bush will sign the legislation if it reaches his desk, as is expected. Bush had promised a veto if the oil industry taxes were not removed.

The bill calls for the first major increase by Congress in required automobile fuel efficiency in 32 years, something the auto companies have fought for two decades.

The car companies will have to achieve an industrywide average 35 miles per gallon for cars, small trucks and SUVs over the next 13 years, an increase of 10 mpg over what the entire fleet averages today.

And it would boost use of ethanol to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022, a sevenfold increase, and impose an array of new requirements to promote efficiency in appliances, lighting and buildings.

This bill "will begin to reverse our addiction to oil. It's a step to fight global warming," said Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

The increased auto efficiency by 2020 will save 1.1 million barrels of oil of a day, equal to half the oil now imported from the Persian Gulf, save consumers $22 billion at the pump, and reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 200 million tons, said Inouye, whose committee crafted the measure.

"It demonstrates to the world that America is a leader in fighting global warming," he said.

For consumers, the legislation will mean that over the next dozen years, auto companies will likely build more diesel-powered SUVs and gas-electric hybrid cars as well as vehicles that can run on 85 percent ethanol.

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