Freedom from CAFE - Editorial - Corporate Average Fuel Economy - Brief Article

Automotive Industries,  Feb, 2002  

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

This morning I paid a measly $1.13 per gallon for a tank of 89 octane gasoline at the local Quik-Mart. During the fill-up ritual I noticed that every single vehicle either pumping fuel or waiting its turn was a light truck Judging by the various makes and models, most were V-S powered and probably deliver, at best, 18 mpg.

Minutes later on the freeway, I listened to a radio essayist admonishing America to kick the foreign oil habit. This goal, he lectured, is strategically more urgent than ever in the wake of Nine-Eleven. Right on, I heard myself exclaiming. No more sending our sons and daughters once again to "liberate" some rat's-nest dictatorship that just happens to be floating on a sea of premium unleaded.

America's energy emancipation is a dream I hope will be attained in my lifetime. The U.S. now gobbles 19.4 million barrels of petroleum every day, of which roughly 57 percent is imported. Unfortunately the amount of crude we buy from all foreign sources has risen steadily for the past 25 years, as domestic oil production declined. Imports will continue to grow, despite risky schemes to drill in Alaska's pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and even in the Great Lakes.

In my view, the public's been remarkably nonchalant concerning our growing foreign-oil dependency According to a staffer in my Congressman's D.C. office, the issue hasn't exactly been lighting up the phones. The reason, of course, is cheap petrol. It grants us the freedom to drive the big, fuel-sucking vehicles we love. It's also a powerful opiate that's stoned us into believing it will last forever. It won't.

President Bush will have something to say regarding energy independence in his upcoming State of the Union address. Politicians want us to believe they're actually doing something to reverse negative long-term trends, and this one's a national security issue. At the same time, automakers want relief from the government's Corporate Average Fuel Economy laws. Despite causing some companies to rack up millions of dollars in non-compliance fines, CAFE is not doing a thing to help us kick the foreign-oil habit.

The ultimate solution is what some officials are calling "the game changer" - the Hydrogen Economy Its prime mover will be the virtually zero-emissions fuel cell, which seems increasingly likely to power everything from future SUVs to houses (see cover story). in a new program dubbed FreedomCAR, the Feds will help automakers and energy companies create the hydrogen fueling infrastructure needed to put fuel cell vehicles on the road, in volume. With taxpayers subsidizing yet another aspect of the mythical "private" auto industry, the fuel cell revolution could happen even quicker than the 2020 timeframe generally forecasted.

FreedomCAR appears to be a worthy idea, but we know little so far about the actual program and its projected cost It's not entirely about reinventing our driving future, however. It's also about trying to negotiate a deal in the Senate, and get it endorsed by the NHTSA (which administers CAFE), to further extend CAFE credits against future technology- in this case, the hydrogen fuel cell

In other words, "let us impress you with what we're preparing for the future and you can ease our CAFE burden for the short term."

The legislative battle is underway Senators John Kerrey (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz. are leading the higher-CAFE crusade which, in one proposal, advocates a 25 to 28 percent mpg hike by 2012. NHTSAs new administrator, Dr. Jeff Runge (an emergency room M.D) could end up being an unlikely industry ally. Runge says his mission is about saving lives, not fuel, asserting that he'II always err on the side of safety.

But basic physics prove that safety means bigger, heavier vehicles. The kind that squeeze 18 mpg or less out of that measly $1.13 gallon of gas. Will the Senate be swayed by FreedomCAR's long-term promise? Don't bet on it. I think when the smoke clears, we'll see the CAFE freeze lifted and a new set of higher numbers to meet.

Lindsay Brooke is editor-in-chief of Automotive Industries

COPYRIGHT 2002 Cahners Business Information
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group