Posted on 12/12/2002 7:47:43 AM PST by new cruelty
If you own a sports utility vehicle, you live in sin. At least that's what the Rev. Jim Ball and his group, the Evangelical Environmental Network, would have you believe. And they've set out to make sure people become aware of this little-known sin through some controversial ads, which ask, "What Would Jesus Drive?"
Are they on to something? After all, 52 percent of the new vehicles purchased in America these days are SUVs. Under current federal laws, a passenger car must get 27.5 miles for the gallon, but an SUV needs to get only 20.7 miles a gallon. Transportation is thought to account for about a third of the global-warming pollution America produces each year, and America, as everyone knows, is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases. So the EEN, drawing what one can only assume it believes is the logical conclusion, says it is socially irresponsible to buy and drive an SUV. Many, of course, don't see the issue quite the same way. Some Americans buy SUVs for defensive and practical reasons. Others like the spacious inside of an SUV for comfort reasons. At some primary schools, as the last bell rings, SUVs are lined up around the block with moms and dads waiting for their tots to emerge. Why? Because mom and dad both feel their kids will be safer in big, spacious vehicles that won't crumple in an accident. And they're right. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that in a collision, large vehicles provide more protection for occupants than small ones (never mind recent statistics showing that rollover rates are higher for SUVs).
CAFE, anyone? If there is a moral problem with the pollution caused by a Ford Explorer, these parents say, it's not with the drivers but with the folks who make and regulate these cars. In the early 1970s, passenger cars polluted far more than they do today. Then in 1975, thanks to concern over America's dependence on foreign oil and pressure from environmentalists, the government passed the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards. The new CAFE standards required carmakers to raise the fuel efficiency of passenger cars to today's levels. Today's new cars, as a result, produce less than 1 percent of the emissions produced by cars in 1970.
Why isn't that the answer today for SUVs? With trouble brewing in Iraq, reducing our dependence on oil--Americans consume about a fourth of the oil used each year in the world, and about 25 percent of that comes from the Middle East--might not be the worst thing. In fact, the government might feel this is the answer. President Bush is considering a proposal to raise SUV fuel standards. The recommendation would raise such standards by half a mile per gallon each year from 2005 to 2007, to 22.2 miles per gallon.
The Bush administration, thought by many to be environmentally unfriendly, is apparently in tow with this policy, and indications are that Bush will finalize the proposal by April 1.
But according to Andrew Kleit, a Pennsylvania State University professor, and George Will, who wrote about Kleit's argument, stricter standards on fuel efficiency for SUVs in the United States would be environmentally harmful. Foreign manufacturers, the argument goes, will regard the fines imposed for not meeting the new standards as a tax that they will simply pay, rather than spend the money to adjust their vehicles. American manufacturers, however, "fearing civil damages and stockholder suits," will comply. U.S. manufacturers will then reduce the number of SUVs they produce. Consumers will buy more foreign SUVs, making the environmental situation worse.
Furthermore, this school of thought says higher fuel-efficiency standards increase the number of miles people drive and perhaps the total amount of emissions. And finally, tougher standards mean higher-priced cars, which mean people will hold on to their high-polluting old cars longer.
I have seen some ads for Humvees on TV recently... I guess no one enlightened them that it isn't PC to own something like that!
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