Posted on 05/30/2007 6:47:18 AM PDT by PissAndVinegar
Beginning this Memorial Day weekend, members of the auto industry are rolling out a comprehensive campaign to convince Americans to oppose proposed increases in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, and to pressure their elected officials to vote down such proposals.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM) has launched a website (www.drivecongress.com) that encourages citizens to compose messages of protest against “unrealistic fuel economy increases” to be hand-delivered to elected officials. AAM represents BMW, DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Toyota and Volkswagen.
The website allows users to insert statements provided by the AAM, such as “I value fuel economy, but I also want many other attributes in my automobile like safety, passenger and cargo room, performance, towing, hauling capacity and more” or “Rather than setting a harmful mandates [sic] like the one being proposed, the government should encourage the use of alternative fuels like ethanol, and provide incentives for consumers, like me, to purchase alternative fuel autos.”
The Detroit News reports that the campaign will also include at least a million dollars of radio ads in ten states that have a high percentage of truck and SUV owners.
The AAM’s efforts are bolstered by parallel campaigns from DaimlerChrysler and General Motors, each of which has brought a dedicated website online to help with the campaign.
According to GM’s website (drivingamericasfuture.com), CAFE standards “deter innovation”; “have no near term effect on oil consumption”; “foster competitive disparities that discriminate against US automakers”; and are “a 1970’s solution to a 21st Century problem.”
The website cites the steady rise in US oil consumption as an indicator that CAFE standards have failed, but does not calculate the level of consumption that might exist if such standards had not been enacted.
DaimlerChrysler’s password-protected website (www.grabdemocracybythehorns.com) is described as a “grassroots advocacy website, a legislative activation tool that provides employees, retirees, dealers and suppliers with a means to conveniently contact elected officials about the issues that concern you, your family and our company.”
CAFE standards were enacted in 1975, when Congress ordered automakers to more than double the fuel economy for passenger cars from 13 miles per gallon to 27.5 miles per gallon within a decade, which the industry achieved. Since then, Congress has regularly considered increasing CAFE standards, but has not approved a fuel economy increase for passenger cars. Last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) increased fuel economy standards for SUVs by 2 percent per year, rising from 21.6 miles per gallon to 24 miles per gallon by 2012.
I’m wondering what thw auto workers union stance is on this...
so your for raising the CAFE standards?
If consumers want better fuel economy, they can buy smaller cars.
We don’t need government to get involved.
Yes, I am. Right now the only high-mileage, high-performance vehicles I can get are foreign and I prefer to buy American. When Detroit quits whining, they can make the same.
How hard would it be for Chevy to put a VW diesel engine into their Cobalt and come up with a 50 mph car? Not very. Or for Dodge to offer a little diesel in their Dakota, alongside the Jeep CRD. Ford can roll over and die as far as I’m concerned.
I just put a white one of these in my garage. CAFE KMA.
Didn't this happen in the 1970s when Detroit was telling us that they simply could not make cars that got more than 8 mpg? Did they forget when the Japanese showed up with cars that got 20mpg?
Without a doubt, the easy cop-out to increasing our available fuel needs, is to use less. Typical weak government and liberal position. The oil companies though, do not want to build more refining capability, since if they wanted to, they could have bought every member of Congress ten times over and the issue would have been closed ages ago, with petroleum flowing from ANWAR and other domestic locations. But today, we are now importing the upside needs for gasoline from foreign sources.
So fuel needs are being balanced, in reality, against the desires of government and big industry. Not the needs of the country. Maybe I should open a motor scooter store and get ready to make a million....and don’t look to the government for a solution. They are too busy being worried about taking care of criminal illegal aliens....
I’d like a Jeep Wrangler with a diesel...but I don’t think there is one out there.
So, you want the government to force Detroit to make the kind of vehicle you want when market forces are driving them the other way?
Cafe is what got us into this SUV mess to begin with.
When is the last time you tried to buy a car that would seat six comfortably and get 25 MPG?
High mileage means small. Wish it weren’t so, but it is. If you look at Europe, the cars with the best MPG are small - very small.
Compare the 07 Accord and Fusion. They get nearly the same mileage.
Hahahahahahah the AAM is clueless about the importance of TIMING. With gas prices moving toward $4 a gallon, thanks mainly due to futures contract flipping more than anything else, but no one willing to do anything about it, they are going to have a hell of a time rallying people against better fuel economy.
You are correct about the government forcing Detroit's hand of course. But I disagree about market forces pushing Detroit to make bigger gas guzzlers. Ford is on the verge of collapse because they bet the farm on gas guzzlers when fuel was cheap. Chrysler is junk, GM is the same. I believe the market is pushing Detroit to make more fuel efficient vehicles, but Detroit doesn't realize it yet.
We don’t need government to get involved.
Ding ding ding ding!
We have a winner! :-)
It's all about consumer choice vs. government regulation.
Besides, increasing CAFE standards always results in increased accident fatalities. Always.
Engineers have even put a direct correlation between CAFE MPG increases to number of fatalities. I believe it's somewhere in the tens of thousands.
No blood for oil!
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