Finally, Progress on Fuel Efficiency
by Jenny Coyle
When the Ford Motor Company announced at the end of July
that it would voluntarily increase the fuel efficiency of its
SUVs, the Sierra Club patted itself on the back.
For two decades the Club has been working to get Congress
to force the auto industry to improve mileage standards for
its vehicles. And Ford's statement came one month after the
Club's Global Warming Campaign was successful in working with
environmental heroes in the Senate to do just that.
After wrangling off the Senate floor with pro-industry
lawmakers and their lobbyists who wanted to block a move
toward stricter mileage standards, both sides agreed to
language in the Transportation Appropriations bill calling for
a study and implementation of new standards by Oct. 2001. The
study will determine the Corporate Average Fuel Economy
standards, but the law requires that they be the maximum
feasibly possible.
Raising CAFE standards from 27.5 to 45 miles per gallon for
cars and from 20.7 to 34 mpg for light trucks (trucks, vans
and SUVs) is the biggest single step the nation can take to
curb global warming, according to Dan Becker, director of the
Club's Global Warming Campaign.
"This is the toughest thing we could ever do," said Becker.
"It's ironic that we're getting more out of Ford voluntarily
than we've been able to get out of Congress in a decade. And
Ford intends to improve fuel-efficiency in its SUVs -which
represent about one-fifth of its fleet - by 25 percent over
five years, a figure that's shockingly similar to what the
Club has been demanding. We hope Ford will broaden this
promise to the other four-fifths of its vehicles as well."
Another factor in Ford's decision, Becker believes, is the
Club's successful campaign to turn SUVs into "stink-mobiles"
in the public's eye. "We've made them difficult for some
people to own because they're too embarrassed to have 'pariah
on wheels' sitting in their driveway," he said. "We've changed
the market."
Then, too, consumers know now that better mileage is
possible - though automakers have claimed the opposite. The
Japanese have proved it with Honda and Toyota and their new
gas-electric hybrid vehicles, Becker said, so Ford, Chrysler
and General Motors will eventually have to follow suit.
This victory entailed more than two decades of lobbying and
grassroots action by many organizations and thousands of
activists. During late 1998 and early 1999, 50,000 activists
sent postcards to their senators urging them to mandate
improved fuel-efficiency and cut power-plant pollution. Then,
in the spring of 1999, a coalition of national environmental,
religious and auto-safety groups urged senators to sign a
"Clean Car Letter" to President Clinton offering to work with
him to raise CAFE standards.
More progress was made when the Club garnered hoards of
media attention as it poked fun at Ford's 19-foot SUV, the
Excursion, by dubbing it the "Ford Valdez." And the effort got
an unexpected boost last spring when Ford Chairman Bill Clay
Ford issued a special annual report to shareholders admitting
that SUVs pollute too much and are unsafe.
What's down the road? The House is expected to pass the
Transportation Appropriations bill this month, and once it's
law, the Department of Transportation and National Academy of
Sciences will conduct a joint study of the standards, which
will be implemented after Sept. 30, 2001.
"We're working now to ensure that the NAS panel is
balanced, that we present the best evidence to it and that the
study is fair," Becker said. "We will also work with the new
administration to ensure that the best possible standards get
set. The fight for clean cars is far from over, but this is
the beginning of the end."
Up
to Top
|