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- Press Release
- Contacts: Mark Helm
202-783-7400 x102
Dave Hirsch, 202-783-7400
x215
-
- For Immediate Release:
- June 16, 2000
-
-
TRANSPORTATION BILL ROADBLOCKS
PROGRESS
Senate Votes to Freeze Auto Efficiency, Strangle
Amtrak, and Postpone SUV Safety
- Washington, D.C. -- Friends of the
Earth today criticized the U.S. Senate for passing a fiscal year
2001 Transportation Appropriations bill that blocks progress on
several important environmental and safety issues. The bill passed
by a vote of 99-0.
-
- "It is a dark day for our nation's
transportation future. Today the Senate has stood in the way of
SUV safety, automobile fuel economy, and the ability of states to
select the best transportation solutions," said David Hirsch,
Transportation Policy Coordinator for Friends of the Earth.
-
- The Senate continued to block
progress on improving the efficiency of automobiles by refusing to
remove a legislative prohibition in the transportation funding
bill. The prohibition restricts the Department of Transportation
from studying or issuing new standards for fuel efficiency. The
Senate did not vote to reject the fuel efficiency rider, but
instead called for a one-year study of the issue. The fuel
efficiency rider has been included for six years on the annual
transportation bills.
-
- "Gasoline prices have reached $2 a
gallon, consumers are hurting because the automakers are selling
vehicles - like sport utilities - that only get 12 miles to the
gallon," said Hirsch. "When is Congress going to get out of the
way and permit fuel efficiency standards to be raised?"
-
- The transportation funding bill also
contains a provision added by Senators Ernest Hollings (D-SC) and
Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) blocking the Department of
Transportation from issuing rollover safety rules for sport
utility vehicles (SUVs) until after a nine-month study has been
completed. Rollovers account for nearly 50 percent of fatalities
in SUV accidents.
-
- "The Senate is telling automakers it
is OK to build unsafe vehicles," said Hirsch.
-
- On a separate issue, Senator George
Voinovich (R-OH) offered an amendment to permit states to spend
their federal transportation dollars on passenger rail systems
such as Amtrak. Currently, states may not use federal funds for
passenger rail, although a multitude of other transportation
projects are eligible, such as constructing new roads, repairing
roads, building transit systems, buying buses, projects to improve
air quality, etc. This amendment failed on a
- procedural vote by 46-52.
-
- "States should have the flexibility
to spend their transportation dollars on whichever transportation
systems are the best," said Hirsch. "The highway lobby is
straightjacketing transportation dollars to force more road
construction on the country."
-
-
Founded in 1969, Friends of
the Earth is a national environmental
-
advocacy organization with
affiliates in 62 countries.
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