Senator Feinstein Urges Improved Fuel Economy Standards to Combat Global Warming
September 21, 2000

Washington, DC – To combat global warming and the increasing cost of gasoline, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today urged improved fuel economy standards for all cars and trucks. In comments at a Senate committee hearing on global warming, she also urged the increased use of energy-efficient vehicles, buildings and appliances, expanding our reliance on renewable energy and encouraged the Senate to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. The following are Senator Feinstein’s comments to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, chaired by Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.):

“I would recommend, Mr. Chairman, that the committee consider three policies that I believe would most comprehensively address global warming:

1) Increasing Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, or CAFÉ for short-- for our nation’s cars, and trucks;
2) Increasing the use of energy-efficient vehicles, buildings and appliances and expanding our reliance on renewable energy and;
3) Encouraging the Senate to take a leadership role and join the 29 other countries which have already ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

I will limit my remarks to fuel efficiency because I believe that improving fuel economy because I believe this is the most important first step we can take in the U.S. to curb global warming. It provides the biggest bang for the buck.

Earlier this year I spent a day at the Scripps Institute in San Diego meeting with various climate change and global warming experts like Dan Cayan, the Director of the Climate Research Division; Ram Ramanathan, the Director of the Center for Atmospheric Science; Michael Molitor, the Coordinator of Climate Change Program at UC San Diego's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation; and Charles F. Kennel, the former head of the National Science Foundation.

All said that there is overwhelming evidence to show that global warming is real and is happening now.

Measurements taken in La Jolla, Calif., at Scripps Institute of Oceanography since 1925, and in San Francisco, show a rise in the sea level of nine inches over the last 75 to 100 years at both locations. According to these scientists, these changes we are now seeing in the climate are unprecedented over a period of 400,000 years. I think that is good evidence that we have a real problem.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions from vehicles in the U.S. exceed the total CO2 emissions of all but three other countries. Carbon Dioxide is the number one greenhouse gas. CAFE Standards regulate how many miles a vehicle will travel on a gallon of gasoline. Better fuel efficiency simply lowers vehicular emissions of pollutants and Carbon Dioxide.There is what’s known as an SUV loophole which allows Sports Utility Vehicles and other light duty trucks to meet lower fuel economy standards than other passenger vehicles.

Fuel economy standards for automobile average 27.5 miles per gallon while the standards for SUVs and light trucks average just 20.7 miles per gallon. When fuel economy standards were first implemented in 1975, a separate tier was permitted for trucks which were not thought to be passenger vehicles. It is easy to see that SUVs, which were thrown into the truck category, are predominantly used as passenger vehicles. There is no reason to think they should not have to meet the same CAFE standards as station wagons and other cars.

CAFE standards for cars have not increased in 14 years and the truck standards have essentially stayed the same since 1981 but since many consumers have traded in their cars for SUVs, overall vehicular carbon dioxide emissions have begun to increase significantly. If SUVs and other light duty trucks were simply required to meet the same fuel economy standards as automobiles, we would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 237 million tons each year. A provision in the Transportation Appropriations bill for the past five years has prevented the Department of Transportation from even studying fuel economy standards and whether the standards should be increased. That is a product of the lobbying by Detroit.

Finally, this past June, Senators Gorton, Bryan and I had a breakthrough and thanks to a compromise reached on the Senate floor, the National Academy of Sciences will be working with the DOT to look at whether these standards can be increased without costing domestic manufacturing jobs and without compromising safety. This is an important first step and I am hopeful that such a study can disprove once and for all the excuses used by car manufacturers and their allies to fight raising CAFE standards. In light of the fuel prices that we have been seeing at the pump this year, raising these standards would also be a big help to the country and to consumers. Closing the SUV loophole would not only save the U.S. one million barrels of oil a day it would also save SUV owners hundreds of dollars a year at the pump. With gas hovering around $2 a gallon in California, this is a big deal. I think it also shows that reducing our greenhouse gases can help consumers in very easy to quantify ways.

But that is not all we can do. I hope we can explore how to encourage the production of alternative fuel hybrid vehicle and fuel cell vehicles Cars and SUVs are not going away, but we can certainly think about ways to make them run cleaner and more efficiently. Hybrid vehicles which run partly on gas and partly on an electric battery are already on the market. I understand that fuel cell technology, which would make zero emission vehicles (creating water as the only waste by-product), is just a few years away.

If we can figure out a way to get these vehicles in people’s driveways sooner, we will undoubtedly reduce our country’s carbon dioxide emissions by millions of tons and go a long way toward combating global warming. I would hope that the Committee would look at federal government fleet purchases and whether we can find ways to ensure that these vehicles meet the highest possible fuel economy standards.

Federal vehicles alone comprise about one percent of all vehicles sold each year in the U.S. State and local government fleets comprise almost another one percent. If government vehicles were required to achieve better fuel efficiency it could really make a difference in reducing greenhouse gases and also provide incentives for car and truck manufacturers to bring these vehicles to market.

I strongly urge the Committee to consider some of these solutions to global warming which I believe can only improve our country’s competitiveness and economy. What we wind up doing or not doing on global warming as early as the next Congress may be evaluated by generations to come. I would hope that our children and grandchildren will be able to look back on the country in the early 21st century and say that the U.S. was a leader, not a laggard.”