| WASHINGTON
- May 8 - Today, the auto industry and their allies in Congress are
poised to launch another salvo in their continuing attack on the
environment with a rider to the Department of Transportation
Appropriations bill freezing automotive miles per gallon standards.
This rider, introduced today in the House Appropriations
Transportation Subcommittee blocks the Administration from even
studying whether to update the most successful energy savings measure
Congress has ever passed-- the law setting Corporate Average Fuel
Economy (CAFE) standards.
"This sneaky, backdoor effort does a severe disservice to American
consumers while harming the environment," said Daniel Becker, Director
of the Sierra Club's Global Warming and Energy Program. "With this
rider, Congress is turning its back on high oil prices and pollution
by actively working to keep gas-guzzling cars on the market and
increase our emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global
warming."
Currently, CAFE standards save more than three million barrels of oil
a day, and save the owner of an average new car $3,000 at the gas pump
each year. Since 1995, a rider on the Transportation funding bill has
blocked the agency from studying new standards.
"Year after year, this rider allows the auto industry to neglect
modern fuel-saving technologies in favor of forcing consumers to buy
more gas," said Ann Mesnikoff, Sierra Club Washington Representative.
"By adding this rider, Congress lets automakers rely upon outdated
technology when alternatives that save consumers money and slash
global warming pollution continue to collect dust on the shelf."
The freeze rider denies the purchasers of SUVs and other light trucks
the benefits of existing fuel saving technologies. The CAFE standards
for light trucks has gone largely unchanged for 19 years. Due to the
increasing number of these vehicles, the average fuel economy of all
new passenger vehicles sold in 1999 sank to its lowest point since
1980. Cars and light trucks alone guzzle 40 percent of the oil used
in the United States.
"This rider stands in the way of the biggest single step the U.S. can
take to curb global warming and save oil -- raising miles per gallon
standards for cars and light trucks," Becker said.
A substantial increase in CAFE standards would result in a net
increase of 244,000 jobs nationwide, with 47,000 of these in the auto
industry, according to a study by the American Council for an Energy
Efficient Economy. Improved standards would reduce pollution,
including cancer-causing hydrocarbons. America's cars and light
trucks are responsible for 20 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide pollution
that causes global warming. The EPA predicts that the impacts of
global warming could include sea-level rise, decreased crop
production, and extreme heat waves and storms.
###
|
