Copyright 2000 The Buffalo News
The Buffalo News
June 22, 2000, Thursday, CITY EDITION
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE, Pg. 2B
LENGTH: 553 words
HEADLINE:
SEARCHING FOR THE WRONG ANSWER
BODY:
If
members of Congress are really interested in doing something about the high cost
of driving, they can approve a tentative deal that would finally let the
government look at raising vehicle mileage standards.
While everyone at
a congressional hearing this week was pointing fingers over gas that costs $ 2
per gallon in the Midwest -- and nearly as much here for some grades --
negotiators were quietly working out a deal that could finally lead to higher
mileage for U.S. vehicles. That would mean drivers wouldn't have to use as much
gas, or pay so much, for every trip they take.
It also means drivers
would be less dependent on OPEC, oil companies, cracked pipelines or whatever
else anyone wants to blame for the current attention-grabbing prices.
It's mind-boggling that Congress has knuckled under to the auto industry
and refused to raise the corporate average fuel efficiency
standards since 1975. Imagine any other such business that was still
operating on 25-year-old standards while technology zoomed ahead around them.
"You don't see that in many other technology-based industries," says Ann
Mesnikoff of the Sierra Club, which is lauding the deal worked out by Senate and
House members.
If the agreement stands up when it comes time to vote, it
would wipe away a House prohibition passed the past five years -- including this
year in its transportation bill -- that prevents the government from even
studying the feasibility of raising the 25-year-old standards.
The deal
would authorize a one-year study to be conducted by the Department of
Transportation and the National Academy of Sciences. The study would examine the
feasibility of higher mileage standards, including the impact on safety and the
technological innovations available.
That study is years overdue. The
Clinton administration has ordered a probe of current gasoline prices and
members of Congress, worried about the impact on their re-election chances, also
are investigating. Yet Americans wouldn't feel the pinch nearly as much, despite
the high per-gallon price, if the industry had been pushed long ago to help
consumers drive farther on every gallon.
Lighter materials, modernized
transmissions, tires that roll easier and other innovations already are
available to significantly increase mileage. To prove it, and disprove
automakers' objections, the Union of Concerned Scientists used the Ford Explorer
-- the nation's most popular sport utility vehicle -- as a test case. Such
modifications hiked the Explorer's mileage from 19.3 mpg to 28.4 mpg -- a nearly
50 percent increase. The modified version also emitted far less pollution.
Though the modified version cost about $ 700 more up front, fuel savings
over the vehicle's life amounted to nearly $ 2,300, according to the study.
Americans could have been benefiting from such mileage improvements now,
without giving up their SUVs, had Congress acted years ago. Instead, we're
trying to figure out whether cleaner-burning reformulated gasoline, low
inventories, profiteering oil companies or some other factor is responsible.
While getting to the bottom of that question, there should be just as much
pressure on Congress to approve the mileage-standards deal so that the nation
isn't having the same finger-pointing debate a year from now.
GRAPHIC: JAMES P. McCOY/Buffalo News; The escalating
price of gasoline might be less painful if fuel efficiency
standards, which haven't been raised since 1975, were increased.
LOAD-DATE: June 26, 2000 
