Untitled Document
What’s New
On July 19, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) introduced the Fuel Economy Reform Act of 2006, a promising new bill to make our cars and SUVs go farther on a gallon of gasoline. He introduced this bill with a bipartisan list of co-sponsors, including Senators Richard Lugar (R-IN), Joseph Biden (D-DE), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Dick Durbin (D-IL).
This bill takes a new approach, directing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to increase fuel economy standards for passenger cars and light trucks by 4% each year (about one mile per gallon), starting in model year 2009 for cars and 2013 for light trucks. If the 4% per year target is met for 10 years after going into effect, this bill will save 1.3 million barrels of oil per day and 20 billion gallons of gasoline per year. If gasoline is just $2.50 per gallon, consumers will save $50 billion at the pump in 2018 alone.
How You Can Help
Urge your representative to support action to raise gas mileage standards to 40 mpg over the next 10 years.
Summary
Plain and simple, America is too dependent on oil.
Our overdependence on oil causes a host of environmental, health, national security, and economic problems. The impacts include beautiful wilderness areas destroyed by oil drilling, beaches marred by oil spills, national parks choked with smog, and global warming.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. New technology exists today that would make our cars get much better gas mileage, a simple solution that would reduce our dependence on oil. We can protect the environment and spend a lot less at the pump too.
With gas costs taking a toll on our pocketbooks, Americans are demanding solutions. We have a tremendous opportunity right now to get the federal government to make our cars go farther on a gallon of gas and finally break America’s oil habit. More.
In The States
We won standards to limit global warming emissions from cars in Connecticut, Washington, Oregon, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont that, combined with the standards won by our allies in New York, will reduce global warming emissions equivalent to seventeen coal-fired power plants powering 6.3 million homes in the U.S. (an amount greater than the national emissions of 140 countries). The standards will also save 7.2 billion gallons of gasoline per year, an amount nearly equal to all the gasoline used in a year in Florida.
Reports
10-State Clean Car Standards to Cut 64 Million Metric Tons of Global Warming Emissions per Year by 2020 2/8/06
America Idles: How President Bush’s Inaction Will Cost Americans Billions at the Pump in 2006 12/21/05
Solutions to America’s Oil Crisis: A Federal Agenda for Reducing Oil Demand and Protecting Consumers 9/29/05
Big Money to Big Oil: How ExxonMobil and the Oil Industry Benefit from the 2005 Energy Bill 8/3/05
ExxonMobil Exposed: More Drilling, M ore Global Warming, More Oil Dependence 7/12/05
Going Nowhere: The Price Consumers Pay for Stalled Fuel Economy Policies 5/27/04
Pumping Up The Price: How The Energy Bill Moves America In The Wrong Direction 10/9/02
Letters and Fact Sheets
Fact Sheet on Rep. Barton’s weak fuel economy bill and the Boehlert-Markey amendment to increase fuel economy standards, 6/06 (PDF)
Letter from U.S. PIRG and a coalition of environmental and consumer groups opposing Rep. Barton’s weak fuel economy bill and expressing support for higher fuel economy standards, 5/06
