Copyright 1999 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
The
Plain Dealer
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November 28, 1999 Sunday, FINAL / ALL
SECTION: DRIVING; Pg. 1F
LENGTH: 997 words
HEADLINE:
AUTOMAKERS, ACTIVISTS AT ODDS OVER TRUCK POLLUTION
BYLINE: By RICK POPELY
BODY:
Although environmental groups contend that the popularity of trucks has
dragged fuel economy to its lowest level since 1980, the auto industry dodged
another bullet this fall when Congress decided not to require better fuel
efficiency for trucks.
But environmentalists who want trucks to meet the
same standard as cars say that both time and consumers are on their side.
Congress has voted down efforts to raise the fuel standard for trucks
five years in a row, prohibiting the Department of Transportation from spending
money even to study the issue.
Federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy
standards (CAFE) require that each manufacturer's passenger-car
fleet average 27.5 miles per gallon (mpg) and that each truck fleet
(sport-utility vehicles, pickups and vans) average 20.7 mpg. Manufacturers that
fall below those levels face fines of millions of dollars.
The truck
CAFE standard last increased in 1994, went it was raised from
20.6 mpg, and the law calls for annual increases to the "highest feasible
limit." The auto industry has persuaded Congress to freeze the standard at 20.7
mpg every year since.
Congress created CAFE standards
in 1975, when trucks were less than 25 percent of the market and were used
mainly as work vehicles. Now, trucks account for nearly half of all sales, and
most are used as personal transportation.
Environmental groups such as
the Sierra Club contend that the growing popularity of trucks has dragged
overall fuel economy to its lowest level since 1980. They accuse car companies
of promoting gas-guzzling SUVs and other trucks with V-8 engines instead of
fuel-efficient cars because they generate higher profits.
"A lot of
people want a more efficient truck, but the car companies won't give them that
choice," said Daniel Becker, director of the Sierra Club's global-warming and
energy program.
The Sierra Club wants the truck CAFE
standard raised to the same level as that for cars and contends that it
can be done over five years.
Becker cites a study by the Union of
Concerned Scientists that concludes Ford Motor Co. could boost the fuel economy
of the Explorer, the top-selling SUV, from 19 mpg to 28 mpg using a smaller V-6
engine with variable-valve technology, a more efficient automatic transmission,
low-rolling-resistance tires, improved aerodynamics and a 620-pound weight
reduction.
The cost to consumers would be $750, but they would save more
than $2,300 over the life of the vehicle by using less gas, according to the
study.
"The technology exists now to increase fuel economy through
better aerodynamics, more-efficient engines and better transmissions. That
technology is less expensive than the gas it saves," Becker said.
Gloria
Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an
industry group that led the resistance to raising the truck CAFE
standard, calls the study cited by Becker "armchair engineering."
"It may drive on paper, but it may not make it up a steep hill in my
neighborhood," Bergquist said. Because the auto industry is so competitive, such
large fuel-economy gains would already be on vehicles if they were feasible, she
added.
"Why wouldn't automakers want to make their vehicles more
efficient? It would be a great selling point," she said.
Bergquist said
that although the proposal to raise the truck CAFE standard did
not specify how much, debate in Washington indicated that the Clinton
administration wants to increase the standard at least 15 percent and as much as
35 percent, the latter putting trucks on the same standard as cars.
"It
comes down to simple physics. We would have to do the same things we did with
cars to achieve improvements like that," she said. Trucks would have to shrink
in size, lose as much as 1,000 pounds and drop V-8s in favor of six-cylinder
engines.
"Smaller, lighter trucks won't have the same utility for towing
boats and hauling. If you make a minivan smaller, you can't carry as many
people. It becomes a passenger car. A minivan today gets better mileage than a
subcompact did in the 1970s," she said.
Becker dismisses as hyperbole
arguments that consumers need brawny sport-utilities and trucks for their towing
and cargo-carrying capabilities.
"The vast majority of people aren't
towing boats or trailers," he said. "They're hauling kids to school and lattes
home from Starbucks."
Because gasoline is less expensive than Starbucks
coffee, consumers value utility and performance more than fuel economy,
Bergquist countered, and the auto industry is responding to market demand.
"Consumers care about fuel economy, but it becomes a lower priority when
gas prices are so low," she said.
Becker points to the new Ford
Excursion as an example of the auto industry putting profit ahead of the
environment. At nearly 19 feet long, it is the biggest mainstream sport-utility,
and industry analysts say it generates at least $12,000 in profit for Ford for
each vehicle sold.
Because of its size and weight, the Excursion is
exempt from federal fuel-economy and emissions standards, though Ford estimates
it averages 10 to 11 mpg. Ford's Excusion and other trucks emit less pollution
than the government allows.
Nevertheless, Becker scorns the Excursion as
the "Ford Valdez, a garbage truck that dumps pollutants into the sky," and he
parodies Ford's old advertising slogan by asking, "Have you driven a tanker
lately?"
Susan Skerker, senior director of worldwide policy for Ford,
defended the Excursion as a heavy-duty work vehicle that carries up to nine
people and tows heavy trailers, such as those for hauling horses.
Skerker said Ford has invited the Union of Concerned Scientists to
discuss its recommendations on the Explorer.
"We couldn't come up with a
cost figure that low [as low as the Union of Concerned Scientists' numbers] or
fuel economy that high," she said, "and there is a discrepancy with what is
doable today. We could be wrong, so we've invited them to come in and compare
notes."
LOAD-DATE: November 30, 1999
