Time's wasting: 4 ways to cut oil consumption now
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Printable FormatIngredients are in place; all that's needed is the will
By now, the only thing as predictable as rising gas prices is the short-term political solutions that come along with them. It seems like every year, as soon as headlines start announcing "Pain at the pump" and Americans start emptying their wallets to fill up their tanks, politicians revert to their Rolodex of responses, from tax rebates and tax holidays to investigations into price gouging by oil companies.
None of these proposals would do any harm, and many will provide Americans some temporary relief at the pump. But in the long term, we can't rely solely on quick fixes designed to placate an anxious public.
We need solutions designed to lessen our dependence on foreign oil and bring down prices for good. Washington understands this, but so far our leadership has been unwilling to take the hard steps necessary to confront one of the most pressing economic and national security challenges of the 21st century.
The time for excuses is over. Now is not the moment to be afraid of what might seem politically difficult or controversial. Now is the moment to call for innovation and sacrifice from those who can truly make a difference in solving our energy crisis: the auto industry, the oil industry, and the federal government.
We must start by producing cars that use less oil. The auto industry has not been asked to raise fuel economy standards in 17 years, and lately both Republicans and Democrats have stopped asking.
Today, we have no choice. Starting in 2008, we should raise coporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, standards a modest 3 percent a year over the next 12 years, so that by 2020, passenger vehicles average 40.5 mpg and light trucks average 32.6 mpg.
This is by no means a dramatic increase: Five years ago, the National Academy of Sciences concluded that raising CAFE to 33 mpg for passenger cars could easily be done without compromising passenger safety.
But auto executives are right when they say that transitioning to more fuel-efficient automobiles would be costly at a time of sagging profits and stiff competition, and that's precisely why the federal government shouldn't let the industry face these costs on their own.
We should strike a grand bargain with the Big Three automakers whereby the government picks up part of the tab for retiree health care costs -- a tab that ran almost $6.7 billion just last year -- in exchange for the car companies using that savings to invest in more fuel-efficient cars.
Beyond raising CAFE, however, it's time we replace oil altogether as America's fuel of choice. This doesn't just mean singing the praises of ethanol and hoping that it finds its way into our fuel supply on its own. It means taking major steps now to put a national biofuel infrastructure in place.
Already, some cars on the road have the flexible-fuel tanks necessary for them to run on E85, a cheaper, cleaner blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. But millions upon millions of cars still don't have these tanks.
It's time for automakers to install those tanks in every single car they make, and it's time for the government to cover this small cost, which currently runs at just $100 per car.
It's also a time to start making E85 fueling stations more available to the public. Currently, only 681 out of 170,000 fueling stations in America offer E85 pumps. This is not acceptable. Every American should have the choice to fill up their car with E85 at any fueling station. And oil companies should stop standing in the way and join us in making this happen. If the big oil companies would devote just 1 percent of their first quarter profits this year to install E85 pumps, more than 7,000 service stations would be able to serve E85 to hungry motorists.
Finally, we should reduce the risk of investing in renewable fuels by providing loan guarantees and venture capital to those entrepreneurs with the best plans to develop and sell biofuels. And we should create a market for renewable fuels by ramping up the renewable fuel standard and creating an alternative diesel standard in this country that together would blend 65 billion gallons of renewable fuels into the petroleum supply each year.
If we had taken all these steps decades ago, when the call for energy independence was first issued in this country, today we would be immune to the whims of oil-rich dictators and surging gas prices. And if we don't take these steps now, we will someday look back on today's $3 per gallon gasoline as the good ol' days. At that point, there won't be a tax rebate big enough, or a tax holiday long enough, to solve our problems.
The American people should not have to wait for this day to come. When it comes to reducing our dependence on oil, the resources are there. The technology is there. The demand is there. Now we just need the will to get the job done.
None of these proposals would do any harm, and many will provide Americans some temporary relief at the pump. But in the long term, we can't rely solely on quick fixes designed to placate an anxious public.
We need solutions designed to lessen our dependence on foreign oil and bring down prices for good. Washington understands this, but so far our leadership has been unwilling to take the hard steps necessary to confront one of the most pressing economic and national security challenges of the 21st century.
The time for excuses is over. Now is not the moment to be afraid of what might seem politically difficult or controversial. Now is the moment to call for innovation and sacrifice from those who can truly make a difference in solving our energy crisis: the auto industry, the oil industry, and the federal government.
We must start by producing cars that use less oil. The auto industry has not been asked to raise fuel economy standards in 17 years, and lately both Republicans and Democrats have stopped asking.
Today, we have no choice. Starting in 2008, we should raise coporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, standards a modest 3 percent a year over the next 12 years, so that by 2020, passenger vehicles average 40.5 mpg and light trucks average 32.6 mpg.
This is by no means a dramatic increase: Five years ago, the National Academy of Sciences concluded that raising CAFE to 33 mpg for passenger cars could easily be done without compromising passenger safety.
But auto executives are right when they say that transitioning to more fuel-efficient automobiles would be costly at a time of sagging profits and stiff competition, and that's precisely why the federal government shouldn't let the industry face these costs on their own.
We should strike a grand bargain with the Big Three automakers whereby the government picks up part of the tab for retiree health care costs -- a tab that ran almost $6.7 billion just last year -- in exchange for the car companies using that savings to invest in more fuel-efficient cars.
Beyond raising CAFE, however, it's time we replace oil altogether as America's fuel of choice. This doesn't just mean singing the praises of ethanol and hoping that it finds its way into our fuel supply on its own. It means taking major steps now to put a national biofuel infrastructure in place.
Already, some cars on the road have the flexible-fuel tanks necessary for them to run on E85, a cheaper, cleaner blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. But millions upon millions of cars still don't have these tanks.
It's time for automakers to install those tanks in every single car they make, and it's time for the government to cover this small cost, which currently runs at just $100 per car.
It's also a time to start making E85 fueling stations more available to the public. Currently, only 681 out of 170,000 fueling stations in America offer E85 pumps. This is not acceptable. Every American should have the choice to fill up their car with E85 at any fueling station. And oil companies should stop standing in the way and join us in making this happen. If the big oil companies would devote just 1 percent of their first quarter profits this year to install E85 pumps, more than 7,000 service stations would be able to serve E85 to hungry motorists.
Finally, we should reduce the risk of investing in renewable fuels by providing loan guarantees and venture capital to those entrepreneurs with the best plans to develop and sell biofuels. And we should create a market for renewable fuels by ramping up the renewable fuel standard and creating an alternative diesel standard in this country that together would blend 65 billion gallons of renewable fuels into the petroleum supply each year.
If we had taken all these steps decades ago, when the call for energy independence was first issued in this country, today we would be immune to the whims of oil-rich dictators and surging gas prices. And if we don't take these steps now, we will someday look back on today's $3 per gallon gasoline as the good ol' days. At that point, there won't be a tax rebate big enough, or a tax holiday long enough, to solve our problems.
The American people should not have to wait for this day to come. When it comes to reducing our dependence on oil, the resources are there. The technology is there. The demand is there. Now we just need the will to get the job done.
Cross-posted at the Houston Chronicle