Copyright 1999 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
October 1, 1999, Friday, FIVE STAR LIFT
EDITION
SECTION: EDITORIAL, Pg. B6
LENGTH: 466 words
HEADLINE:
SUVS VS. LUNGS
BODY:
CONGRESS
STOCK up on hay. Soon, we'll all have to get around on horses. If you
believe the auto industry, it's about to go under -- just like it did in the
1960s over seat belts, in the '70s over gas mileage regulations and in the '80s
over air bags. They fear that the newest death knell will come in 24-year-old
fuel economy regulations on sport utility vehicles, vans and light trucks.
A provision to merely study those regulations was knocked out of the
Senate transportation bill, but not by enough votes to override a veto.
Those regulations, called Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or
CAFE standards, were passed in 1975. Back then, light trucks
were, well, light trucks, used by small numbers of farmers and tradesmen. Today,
the light truck category accounts for almost half of all new vehicles sold,
including the trendy, gas-guzzling SUVs and vans. The entire fleet of cars was
required to average 27.5 miles per gallon. Light trucks could get 20.7 mpg.
Most light trucks aren't hauling hay. They haul young professionals to
Starbucks and children to soccer games and birthday parties. In addition to the
fuel economy discrepancy between SUVs and cars, they also play by a different
set of rules for tailpipe emissions, pumping much dirtier gunk into the air than
the old family station wagon.
Those campaign-cash-waving champions of
our health and safety, the auto industry, are sounding all the same alarms
they've trotted out every year since 1995, when Congress first suggested taking
a look at the issue. They say CAFE standards already have cost
200,000 jobs, even that there is "overwhelming evidence," according to the
conservative Heritage Foundation, that "CAFE kills" by forcing automakers to
produce smaller, unsafe cars. (Never mind drunken driving, dangerous
intersections, bad weather, poor driving by teenagers, small cars being slammed
into by SUVs, etc.).
Auto barons are not worrying about a decline in our
safety or jobs. They're worrying about a decline in their profit margins. But
even that is unfounded.
Sen. Richard Bryan of Nevada conducted a poll
asking SUV owners if they would pay $ 400 more for SUVs brought into compliance
with car fuel standards of 27 miles per gallon. Eighty percent said they would.
More than 5 million of the children soccer moms tote around have asthma. And
children are the ones who will suffer more from global warming, the deadliest
result of gas guzzling. Setting aside environmental benefits, buying less gas
over the life of the vehicle would ultimately save SUV owners thousands of
dollars.
This continuing refusal to even let experts look at the
CAFE standards "is absolutely indefensible," said Sen. Bryan,
who is encouraging President Bill Clinton to veto the transportation bill.
We agree.
LOAD-DATE: October 1, 1999
