Safety Takes a Back Seat

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 13, 2001 | by John Berlau

Public Citizen, ironically, still backs dramatic increases in CAFE. Ralph Hoar, coauthor of the report and director of Safetyforum.com, says the report should not be taken as a broadside against CAFE.

"This was a requirement that was placed [by Ford] on an already flawed tire," he says. Hoar, who takes no position on CAFE, says there are other ways to achieve CAFE standards besides reducing tire weight. "Why would a manufacturer choose an already discredited, proven-unsafe method of achieving fuel economy?" he asks.

But CEI's Kazman notes that a Union of Concerned Scientists paper touts reducing tire weight as a way to make "greener SUVs." Kazman says, "Any policymaker should at least stop to think about what the Ford-Firestone fiasco means, based on the Public Citizen report, before then rushing out and declaring an across-the-board mandate on SUV fuel economy. No matter what technologies you use, there's a tradeoff between safety and fuel economy."