Greens Say: Kill Pngv, All Diesel Research Programs

Diesel Fuel News, March 5, 2001 by Jack Peckham

Twenty-four green groups -- led by Friends of the Earth, Taxpayers for Common Sense and the Ralph Nader-founded U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) -- urge Congress to axe all clean-diesel research programs.

Near the top of the "Green Scissors 2001" list for R&D species extinction is the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV), a joint industry/government R&D program that unanimously led to automaker endorsement of the diesel-electric hybrid as the only practical 80 miles/gallon five-passenger sedan feasible in the near term.

"Cutting this program would end a research subsidy to the 'Big 3' automakers that is encouraging the production of polluting diesel powered vehicles," the "Green Scissors" group said.

Also facing Green extinction: Petroleum R&D. "Eliminating the petroleum and diesel research programs, which benefits large, profitable fossil fuel and auto companies, would save $1.6 billion and reduce subsidies that encourage global warming," the report says.

The groups denounce an energy security bill pushed by Senate Republicans and supported by Republican President George Bush as "a wish list for the nation's largest polluting industries. If enacted, the bill would give new handouts to the oil, coal, gas and nuclear power industries to destroy our natural resources."

Nader's Green Party, which traces its roots to one of the three Green Scissors leading groups, was soundly defeated in the last U.S. presidential election, with about 2% of the popular vote. Democratic nominee Al Gore fashioned himself as the "environmentalist" candidate, but Gore was a principal backer of the PNGV program.