November 24, 2001 http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/24/opinion/24KENN.html?todaysheadlines
There is a clear and pragmatic way to reduce our dependency fast. Since 40
percent of the oil used by America fuels light trucks and cars, an increase
in corporate average fuel economy standards — called CAFE — could
have a dramatic impact.
In the late 1970's, President Jimmy Carter implemented CAFE standards to
combat an oil shortage driven by policies of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries. The standards raised fuel efficiency in American cars
by 7.6 miles a gallon over six years, causing oil imports from the Persian
Gulf to fall by 87 percent. Our economy grew by 27 percent during that period.
Detroit, predictably, figured out how to build more fuel-efficient cars largely
without reductions in size, comfort or power.
The CAFE standards worked so well that they produced an oil glut by 1986.
That's when the Reagan administration intervened to rescue America's domestic
oil industry from gasoline price collapse. Ronald Reagan's rollback of CAFE
standards caused America, in that year, to double oil imports from the Persian
Gulf nations and to burn more oil than is in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge.
According to a recent report by Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute,
if the United States had continued to conserve oil at the rate it did in
the period from 1976 to 1985, it would no longer have needed Persian Gulf
oil after 1985. Had we continued this wise course, we might not have had
to fight the Persian Gulf war, and we would have insulated ourselves from
price shocks in the international oil market. Fuel efficiency is a sound
national energy policy, economic policy and foreign policy all wrapped into
one. Every increase of one mile per gallon in auto fuel efficiency yields
more oil than is in two Arctic National Wildlife Refuges. An improvement
right now of 2.7 miles per gallon would eliminate our need for all Persian
Gulf oil!
Yet the Republican Congress in 1995 made it illegal for the Environmental
Protection Agency even to study higher CAFE standards. The result is that
America now has the worst energy efficiency in 20 years.
If Congress is serious about ensuring our national security it should immediately
pass legislation to raise fuel economy standards to 40 miles a gallon by
2012 and 55 by 2020. This would give automakers ample time to adjust their
production. In the meantime, Congress should close the sport utility vehicle
loophole by holding S.U.V.'s and minivans to the fuel economy standards for
cars; automakers have the technology now to achieve this. Along with the
other benefits, higher fuel economy standards could bring increased demand
for efficient cars, leading to an increase in motor- vehicle-related jobs.
We can also substantially cut gasoline consumption by requiring tire
manufacturers to sell replacement tires that are as friction-free as tires
on new cars.
We missed a huge opportunity in the 1980's and 1990's to increase our fuel
efficiency. If overall energy conservation options available in 1989 were
implemented today, each year we would save 54 times the oil that would have
been used from the Arctic that year, at a fraction of the price of drilling
there.
Mr. Bush's Energy Security Act will actually make us more dependent on foreign
oil, and it will place our hopes for national energy security in an insecure
pipeline that could even become a terrorist target. There is no reason to
wait 10 years for Arctic oil to come on line when a small investment in
conservation would quickly reduce American demand for oil.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council
and president of the Waterkeeper Alliance.
Better Gas Mileage, Greater Security
By ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.
t has become clear to most
Americans that maintaining our national security will require reducing our
dependence on foreign oil. But Republicans are using the current crisis to
push through a reckless energy agenda, including drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, that will not improve America's security. Even the conservative
Cato Institute has called President Bush's claim that Arctic oil would reduce
gas prices or American dependency on foreign oil "not just nonsense, but
nonsense on stilts."
