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A Times Editorial
After years of no progress, momentum is building in Washington to require improved fuel efficiency from the American automobile industry.
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 23, 2001
Automakers haven't had to improve car mileage for more than a decade. As profits grew, General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler kept federal regulators off their backs the old-fashioned way: They plied politicians with campaign contributions and found a willing ally in Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, who helped freeze mileage standards the past four years.
Change could be coming. Even members of Congress who normally protect the auto industry are saying it is time to make cars and trucks more fuel efficient. Credit for that attitude adjustment goes to the American public, which reacted with scorn to the exclusion of conservation in the Bush administration's energy plan.
In a setback to the auto industry, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin, R-La., has asked that the freeze on mileage standards be lifted. And the conservative Tauzin has indicated he favors fuel-efficiency improvements that would save 5-billion gallons of gasoline between 2004 and 2010, which would mean only a modest increase in overage mileage. Currently, cars must average 27.5 mpg and light trucks (which include SUVs, minivans and pickups) 20.7 mpg.
Congress can do better than that, however. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., wants a single standard for cars and light trucks of 40 mpg by 2016. At that rate, the country would save 3-million barrels of oil a day, more than is imported from the Persian Gulf, according to the Sierra Club. Waxman's measure failed to pass the Energy Committee, but it likely will be debated and voted on by the full House later this year.
Of course, it is too soon to count out GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler. They could yet recover their lobbying skills and persuade Congress to pass a symbolic measure that would result in very little improvement on mileage standards. Pressure is on Congress to act, however.
Improved mileage is the most effective way to make a dent in our dependence on foreign oil. Gasoline for cars and light trucks consumes 40 percent of the nation's oil supply, according to the Sierra Club. Yet overall mileage has decreased in recent years because a growing number of new car sales are SUVs and other gas hogs. (Mileage gains will also reduce global warming emissions and air pollution.)
The Bush administration said it was waiting for a study by a National Academy of Sciences panel on the mileage issue. While the panel hasn't released its final report, the New York Times obtained a draft copy that surprised those who feared the group -- its members were drawn from the oil and auto industries -- would be biased toward carmakers.
Cars and even SUVs could improve mileage by 8 to 11 mpg (much more for some models) over the next decade, and any price increase would be covered by lower fuel costs, according to the report. Some of the technology already exists, but some carmakers use it to enhance performance of heavier vehicles rather than to improve fuel efficiency. The best way to achieve mileage gains is through government regulation, the report says.
That brings the issue back to the Bush administration and Congress. If President Bush relies on the experts' report, as he said he would, he should be calling for a substantial increase in mileage standards for cars and SUVs. And Congress should stop posturing and start solving the problem.
The auto industry will squeal, of course, but its arguments are implausible. They say large mileage gains are too expensive, but they ignore the fact that they will be given years to phase in the improvements. Growing desperate, GM attempted a particularly dishonest campaign by saying if it reduced the weigh of its vehicles, more people would die in accidents. Not so, according to the panel of experts. Reducing the weight of the largest SUVs and pickup trucks would actually improve highway safety because those vehicles are especially deadly to other cars on the road.
The excuses for continuing to build gas-guzzling cars should end. While Congress and the Bush administration might want to debate the final mileage numbers, they should take substantial steps toward better fuel efficiency for all cars and trucks.