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Contact Jim: jdipeso@rep.org (253) 740-2066 / 2008 Archive / 2007 Archive / 2006 Archive / 2005 Archive
Wasted Fuel, Time, and Opportunities
July 7, 2008
The dangers of an
energy business model based on the assumption that oil would always be
cheap, abundant, and reliable have been known since the Eisenhower
administration.
Now, with gasoline prices cruising well past $4 per gallon, lawmakers
and other observers of energy politics look back with regret at missed
opportunities to tighten motor vehicle fuel economy standards, better
known as CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy).
The frankest of those interviewed for a New York Times
article published July 6 was retiring Senator Pete Domenici, R-NM. An
opponent until last year of boosting CAFE standards, Domenici wishes he
hadn't listened to what he called Detroit's "baloney" that the market
would shift to fuel-efficient cars in its own good time.
Kudos to Domenici. On the other hand, Congressman John Dingell, D-MI,
says he has no regrets about fighting CAFE. Detroit just gave the
consumers what they wanted, Dingell argues. Yes, but Detroit whetted
the appetite for gasoline gluttony with clever marketing that equated
guzzlers with power, status, and the American way of life.
Conservatives who should have known better dismissed conservative
virtues such as efficiency, stewardship, and saving resources for the
future.
In the July 6 article, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich went so far
as to predict that painfully high prices won't broaden public
acceptance of tougher CAFE standards. Big, thirsty vehicles, he opined,
are a form of social expression.
Perhaps, but there are many forms of social expression that are less
risky. Watercolor painting, for example, doesn't weaken the U.S.
economy, tie U.S. security to dangerous regimes, or fill the atmosphere
with greenhouse gases. Besides, there is no cosmic law that stylish
vehicles must be powered by gasoline-fueled internal combustion engines.
It took $3-per-gallon gas for Congress last year to muster enough
courage to face down Detroit and the UAW and push through a CAFE
increase that will save 1 million barrels of oil per day by 2020. Now,
with gasoline above $4 per gallon, the personal transportation market
is shifting rapidly. People are driving less. Transit systems are
reporting standing-room-only buses. Consumers are snapping up
fuel-smart vehicles, leaving inefficient SUVs and pickups to molder on
dealer lots. Household solvency trumps social expression any day of the
week.
Automakers are scrambling to catch up. General Motors promises that the
Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid electric car, will be ready for sale
by 2010. If the Volt does what it promises and finds consumer
acceptance, it could be the leading edge of a technology shift that
would up-end the personal transportation market every bit as
dramatically as the personal computer transformed the workplace.
Much more besides commercializing plug-in hybrids must be done to dig
ourselves out of the energy hole that we have spent the better part of
a century digging ourselves into. Still, the silver lining of the $4
gasoline cloud is that the necessity of a new, cleaner, more robust
energy economy is going mainstream.
"Told you so" would be fun to say. "Better late than never" would be more constructive .
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