October
2000
Uncle
Sam or Uncle Sugar? Fuel Efficiency and Air Quality
By Ralph Nader
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On May 19, the House passed a bill providing fiscal
year 2001 funding of $55 billion for the Transportation Department.
The vote wasn’t even close—395 votes for, and 13 against.
Attached to this bill was a "rider" that prevents the Department
of Transportation (DOT) from raising fuel economy standards for passenger
vehicles and light trucks. (A rider is a clause appended to a larger
legislative bill. Appropriations bills that have significant support
and are usually off limits for presidential vetoes are prime targets
for anti-environment riders).
Since 1996, Congress—operating at the behest of the auto industry—has
used riders to prevent the DOT from developing new and improved Corporate
Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) vehicle fuel efficiency standards. If the
auto industry had spent as much time working on more efficient engines
as it spent on lobbying against greater efficiency, cars would be driving
many more miles per gallon than they are today. Perhaps the more than
$11.5 million in political contributions the auto industry gave in
1998
helped keep Congress in check.
The last major improvement in fuel efficiency standards came in 1985,
which was the year Congress mandated that passenger cars meet a 27.5
mpg standard. Even the existing weak CAFE standards have helped reduce
oil consumption and reduce the output of global warming gases. The Union
of Concerned Scientists notes that passenger vehicles and light trucks
account for 20 percent of the carbon dioxide spewed into our air each
year. Just imagine: each gallon of gasoline produced and burned produces
25 pounds of carbon dioxide.
These standards are, however, no longer acceptable. In 1975, when Congress
enacted the Energy Policy and Conservation Act and adopted fuel efficiency
standards, there were about 133 million vehicles on the road. Today
there are more than 203 million vehicles on the road. According to Center
for Auto Safety Director Clarence Ditlow, passenger vehicle fuel economy
hit a high of 26.2 mpg in 1987, dropped to 24.4 mpg in 1997, and in
1998 moved up slightly to 24.6 mpg. In fact, the Wall Street Journal
reports that the average fuel economy of all new cars is at its lowest
point since 1980.
Environmental groups have been pushing Congress to raise the CAFE standard
to 45 mpg for cars and 35 mpg for light trucks. This is a small, but
important, step that our government needs to take if the U.S. wants
any shred of moral authority when it talks to other countries about
air quality.
Uncle Sam or Uncle Sugar?
Passenger cars and light trucks account for 40 percent of the oil
used in the U.S. Adequate mile-per-gallon standards for motor vehicles
could reduce smog and alleviate some of the pollution exacerbating
global
warming, reduce consumption of foreign oil, and cut the trade deficit.
Better standards could also save consumers money at the pump, and lessen
the toll air pollution takes on our health (according to several national
studies, air pollution is responsible for 64,000 deaths each year).
Moreover, improved vehicle fuel efficiency standards, coupled with
a
strong commitment to renewable energy, could eliminate our need to
explore for oil in environmentally sensitive areas around the globe.
(Less oil
exploration and development also means fewer off-shore oil spills and
fewer leaky underground storage tanks to pollute our nation’s
ground water).
The Center for Auto Safety has estimated that increasing CAFE standards
for cars and light trucks by 60 percent (45 mpg for cars and 35 mpg
for light trucks) by 2005 will result in a savings of three million
barrels of oil each day, reduce hydrocarbon emissions by 500,000 tons
and cut 140 million tons in greenhouse gas emissions each year, and,
on average, save new car purchasers $3,000 in fuel costs over the life
of the car. Public Citizen estimates that since 1975 the CAFE standards
have saved consumers more than $30 billion annually.
Existing technology can make cars 50 percent more efficient than they
are today. Honda and Toyota have developed hybrid electric cars that
get more than 60 mpg. U.S. auto makers could deploy existing technology
tomorrow to increase fuel efficiency to much higher standards than are
now required, if they chose or if they are mandated to do so.
Sierra Club’s Dan Becker said, "Making vehicles go farther
on a gallon of gas is the biggest single step we can take toward curbing
oil consumption and global warming." Unfortunately, the will of
our elected officials to curb air pollution and the indifference of
corporate polluters to the silent, cumulative violence they inflict
on our people through air pollution persists.
Instead of supporting tougher standards on the auto makers, the Clinton
administration has been content to put forward the corporate welfare-heavy
Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV). The PNGV program
involves oligopolistic collaboration between the Big Three auto companies—GMC,
Ford and Chrysler—and a wide range of U.S. government agencies.
They are researching a "clean car", but the auto makers have
no obligation to deploy any technologies developed under the PNGV.
For
the auto companies, PNGV has been a perfect smoke screen behind which
they can carry out their efforts to thwart mandated increases in CAFE
standards. After eight years and $1 billion taxpayer dollars, the Big
Three auto companies have little to show the public except that their
already overflowing coffers have been bolstered by an unnecessary infusion
of government funds. Given the ease with which this money came and
went,
taxpayers can be sure that the auto companies will be asking Uncle
Sam to be Uncle Sugar and give them additional handouts.
We need to move well beyond the modest improvements in CAFE standards
to truly provide people with the air quality they deserve. President
Clinton can cease his passivity and tell Congress that he will veto
any riders that make it impossible to increase vehicle fuel efficiency
standards. The second step would be to close the loophole that allows
sport utility vehicles to avoid the same CAFE standards that cars must
meet.
Ralph Nader has over 30 years of experience as a consumer
advocate and public citizen. In 1971 he founded Public Citizen, a consumer
watchdog group (see www.publiccitizen.org).
He has authored numerous articles and books, most famous of which is
Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile,
the 1965 in-depth critique of the auto industry. Nader is the Presidential
candidate for the Green Party. To learn more about Nader’s presidential
platform, visit www.votenader.org.
This article was published in the Voice News—in its 6/9-13 edition
(see www.theVoiceNews.com for
more articles by Ralph Nader)—and is reprinted with kind permission.
