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By John Byrne Barry
The expected controversy never materialized. But the buzz generated by the award may have helped steer the auto industry - and Congress - toward long overdue progress on improving automobile fuel efficiency and reducing global warming emissions.
Meanwhile, U.S. automakers continued to sell their low-efficiency sport-utility vehicles like there was no tomorrow. Despite the Club's success in publicly ridiculing Ford for its gas-guzzling Excursion, a.k.a. the Ford Valdez, Ford reported that they couldn't keep their pricey SUVs in stock. The Club had also been working on a number of fronts to push Congress or the president to increase the fuel efficiency standards for vehicles. Both have the power to do so. The auto industry has fought increases in fuel-efficiency since they were introduced in 1975, recycling the same arguments year after year. For the past four years, congressional allies of the automakers successfully passed budget riders freezing standards at levels that haven't changed in 25 years. But in 2000, finally, Congress felt the heat and broke the logjam. Lawmakers agreed in July to a study that could and should lead to a long overdue increase in the standard. "We knocked out one of the legs on the automakers' chair," said Chris Hayday, from the Club's Global Warming and Energy Program. "They can still sit in it, but it's wobbly." Who can say what caused what? The Club's massive grassroots effort generated thousands of postcards and phone calls to public officials, hundreds of letters to the editor. Gas prices skyrocketed over the summer. Compelling evidence that global warming is both real and dangerous kept piling up. Public uproar about SUVs got so loud that Bill Clay Ford, Jr., Ford's chairman of the board, publicly admitted that SUVs contribute more than cars to global warming pollution and smog. In July, Ford pledged to improve its SUVs' fuel economy by 25 percent over the next five years. General Motors pledged to do even better than that. "This marks a major shift in their thinking," said Hayday. "We'll give them the benefit of the doubt, but hold them to their promises." Despite this progress domestically, at a climate-change conference in The Hague, the United States avoided making any commitments to reduce its share of global warming pollution. The Kyoto Treaty on global warming, reached three years ago but not yet ratified by any industrialized nations, called for the United States to cut emissions by 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. At The Hague, the United States sought to achieve those reductions through an emissions-trading scheme and tree planting - a proposal the European Union and developing countries rejected as a "free ride."
Because global warming is such a huge and daunting concern, it's tough to recruit grassroots volunteers. But the campaign's decision to hire 10 new field organizers marks a commitment to change that. These organizers - the first, Catherine Corkery, was recently hired in New Hampshire - will work with chapters and groups to find ways to act locally, like supporting mass transit or getting states to inventory their greenhouse-gas emissions and then cut them by 10 percent. One of Corkery's goals is to increase the commitment by local governments and companies to buy clean cars for their fleets. In mid-December, she "played" car salesperson, working with the New Hampshire Chapter to host the two hybrid vehicles and give the public a chance to test drive the Insight and Prius. "No, I don't get a commission," said Corkery. Take Action: Please write a letter to the editor bemoaning the U.S. opposition to meaningful reductions in global warming pollution. You might mention what the Club has been saying for a decade, that the single biggest step to curbing global warming is raising fuel-economy standards for cars and trucks. Also see our Take Action site for online activism. Up to Top |
When Sierra Club leaders awarded the
organization's first ever Environmental Engineering Award to a car
at the Los Angeles Car Show in January, they flinched, expecting a
flurry of criticism. Sure, the Honda Insight goes nearly 70 miles on
a gallon of gas and boasts innovative hybrid technology combining a
gas engine with an electric motor, but it's still a car that burns
fossil fuels and runs on four tires.
