FUEL FAILURE

The Senate’s failure to achieve anything of substance on improving fuel efficiency for cars and light trucks was a triumph of fear over future. The vote on the amendment this week that effectively killed even incremental improvement was so overwhelming that the primary conclusions the public might draw is that the heavy U.S. dependence on Mideast oil is fine with Congress and that the effects of global warming is an issue for someone else to address.

By a vote of 62-38, senators backed an auto lobby amendment that called for more study on an issue that has been studied for 25 years and asked the secretary of transportation to think about recommending some new standards over the next couple of years. Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins properly voted against both this amendment and a further amendment to separate light trucks from SUVs in setting fuel standards. In neighboring New Hampshire, Sen. Judd Gregg also rejected the legislation, while Sen. Bob Smith embraced both. The bill supported by Sens. Snowe, Collins and Gregg, which would have increased fuel efficiency on vehicles over the next 13 years from 28 to 36 miles per gallon, was withdrawn because it didn’t stand a chance.

The argument used by the auto industry was job loss – it would lose out to foreign automakers, which would be better able to respond to the new standard. Like the steel industry, which wants to be able to sell freely abroad but wants tariffs for imports, the auto industry doesn’t mind trying to beat the competition in Europe or Japan but doesn’t want to compete for efficiency on its own turf. The U.S. industry has had a quarter century to prepare for tougher fuel standards; if it isn’t ready yet, it is because it is cheaper to complain in Congress than retool at the plant.

A second argument for doing nothing is even worse. Because some studies have shown that smaller cars can be less safe in accidents than larger ones, critics say, fuel efficiency will lead to more deaths. The arguments is refuted by at least one example: The Honda Civic in the mid-1970s weighed 1,800 pounds and got 32 mpg; it now weighs 2,600 pounds and gets 40 mpg. Well built, fuel-efficient cars don’t have to be tiny. More importantly, what protects passengers is not only size but recent innovations such as air bags, better safety belts, improved fuel systems, mandatory recalls, side-impact protection and increased roof-strength standards – all features that the auto industry at one time or another opposed.

This was the first time in a decade that members of Congress had a chance to make improvements in the fuel standard, which was last changed in the 1980s. As of this week, they blew it over weak reasoning and a lack of courage. Remember them the next time OPEC cuts production and this country goes into a panic.