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 he increasingly popular sport utility
vehicles and light trucks are starting to cause problems for the auto makers
and our environment according to a 4/3/98 New York Times article. The auto
makers are scrambling to meet the fuel economy standards set forth by the
federal government.
 Congress passed current Corporate
Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards in 1975, and they require that new
cars average 27.5 miles per gallon and light trucks average 20.7 m.p.g.
Since CAFE is an average standard, auto makers can produce vehicles which
fail to meet the standard, as long as enough vehicles exceed the standard
to balance it out.
While chasing profits with gas guzzlers,
the Big 3 have backed themselves into an environmental corner. According
to Keith Bradsher, "The popularity of big sport utilities and pickups
that manage only 15 miles or less per gallon has created serious problems
for the Big Three auto makers." Both Ford and Chrysler are close to
falling below the federal guidelines and will be required to pay a fine
of "$5 per vehicle for every tenth of a mile per gallon that a company's
average fuel economy falls below the standard." For GM this could mean
close to $10 million dollars, although this is next to nothing compared
with last year's sales of approximately $200 billion.
Auto makers are trying to squeeze
out of this jam, but not by doing the right thing. So that they do not count
against GM's 1998 CAFE averages, the company is declaring that gas guzzlers
built after January 31 are actually 1999 models. This raises the fleet-wide
average mile for GM's light trucks, and on paper it looks like they are
not violating CAFE standards. In addition, GM strengthened the suspension
on some of the smaller Surburbans and made them heavier so heavy that they
are no longer classified as light trucks.
The Big Three may be avoiding the
fines that SUV may generate, but they are not avoiding the cost to our environment.
Big lie by the Big 3
There they go again. The Big 3 U.S.
auto makers are yet again attacking miles per gallon (also known as corporate
average fuel efficiency, or CAFE) standards. They are again pushing a bill
to repeal the president's authority to set CAFE standards, and are asking
their friends on the House and Senate transportation committees to craft
a budget rider blocking any increase in standards. Their argument: They
just can't make their products any cleaner or more fuel efficient.
Their argument has always been a
lie, but now they have admitted it. The European operations of Ford and
General Motors have announced that they are supporting a plan to raise the
average fuel economy of new cars sold in Europe to 39 m.p.g. within 10 years.
That's dramatically higher than the current U.S. standard of 27.5 m.p.g.
for cars, and nearly double the 20.7 standard for light trucks, mini vans,
and sport utility vehicles. |
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