Copyright 1999 The Times-Picayune Publishing Co.
The Times-Picayune
September 16, 1999 Thursday, ORLEANS
SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. A3
LENGTH: 409 words
HEADLINE:
CONSUMER GROUPS PUSH FOR BETTER GAS MILEAGE IN SUVS, LIGHT TRUCKS
BYLINE: By Joan Treadway Staff writer
BODY:
If sport-utility vehicles and light trucks
had to meet the same miles-per-gallon standards that cars are held to, Louisiana
would be spared more than 3 million tons of carbon dioxide pollution annually,
according to a report released Wednesday.
Additionally, Louisiana
residents collectively would save nearly $220 million a year at the gas pump, it
said.
The findings of the report by the U.S. Public Interest Research
Group, founded by Ralph Nader, were announced by Scott Glab, a representative
from the organization's field office in Atlanta who spoke in Audubon Park at one
of several such gatherings across the country Wednesday.
He was flanked
by Gary Groesch, director of the non-profit Alliance for Affordable Energy, a
local group that supports the findings and goals of the national organization.
Glab and Groesch said their groups want sport-utility vehicles and light
trucks to be required to average about 27.5 miles per gallon, as automobiles do,
rather than the 20 mpg they now average. If the vehicles use less gasoline, less
carbon dioxide will be released into the air, Groesch said.
The two
groups urged Congress to adopt the new standards, and they also want to require
an increase in the fuel-efficiency standards of cars.
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday rejected the tighter standards when it
refused to lift a five-year ban on government studies into whether fuel
efficiency standards for cars and light trucks should be raised.
The 55-40 vote to maintain the freeze was a victory for the auto
industry, which insists that the imposition of tougher fuel standards,
particularly on sports utility vehicles, would result in cars that are less
safe, higher costs and reduced consumer choices.
Groesch said it is
ironic that news footage in recent days showed many motorists driving
sport-utility vehicles as they flee Hurricane Floyd. The vehicles' emissions
warm the atmosphere, a situation some scientists say may be causing more
frequent and more powerful storms.
The national report reveals another
"sneak attack on Louisiana's environment," Glab said: a proposal supported by
Rep. Ron Packard, R-California, that would prolong the existing federal
permitting process for the development of wetlands. Groesch said he and his
group want a re-evaluation of both federal and state permitting rules. More than
600 acres of wetlands have been destroyed by development in Louisiana from 1988
to 1996, the report said.
LOAD-DATE: September 16, 1999
