Like a rock: a Chevy dealer speaks out for fuel-efficient cars - The Sierra Club Bulletin: news for members - Chuck Frank - Brief Article

Sierra, July-August, 2002

Not many Sierra Club members get their letters read on the Senate floor. And not many Club activists are also car dealers.

But Chuck Frank is. The owner of "Z" Frank Chevrolet in Chicago and a Sierra Club member since 1976, Frank has bucked the automotive establishment to support increased fuel-economy standards. Earlier this year, he sent a letter to every U.S. senator, asking them to pass a bill that would require car companies to make their vehicles--including sport-utility vehicles and light trucks--get at least 35 miles to the gallon across the board by 2013.

"It pains me to be at odds with the manufacturer I represent. For 65 years, my family has been selling cars and trucks--almost 50 of those years, Chevrolets," Frank wrote in his letter, which Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) read at a March 12 hearing on the Kerry-Hollings-McCain energy bill. "I want to support my manufacturer--but first, they must give me the vehicles to sell that are in the best interests of our citizens and our country."

Unfortunately, the Senate didn't heed Frank's eloquent call. By a vote of 62 to 38, the legislators rejected the bipartisan bill, which would have raised corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards for cars and light trucks 30 percent. Offered by Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.), Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.), and John McCain (R- Ariz.), the proposed amendment could have saved a million barrels of oil per day by 2015.

Frank hasn't given up the fight. He has extended his evangelism to fellow car dealers, slowly working to build a larger lobby for fuel-efficient vehicles." Most dealers have bought the manufacturer's line that raising fuel-economy standards would be very detrimental to our business," Frank says." But everything I've learned tells me that doing things that are good for the ecology are good for the economy overall."--J.H.