And we wonder why oil prices are so high? Sure, instability in the Middle East has something to do with it, but how about our own consumption? The fact is, the United States - with just 4% of the world's population and less than 2% of the world's proven oil reserves - consumes nearly 25% of the world's oil. And most of that is in the transportation sector. So how are we doing in terms of reducing waste and inefficiency in the transportation sector? Not so hot, in spite of $3 per gallon gasoline prices. According to today's Washington Post:
Automakers have made no progress in improving vehicle fuel economy over the past year, continuing a nearly 25-year trend of industry stagnation on gasoline mileage, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.In an annual report released yesterday, the EPA said the industry-wide fuel economy of 2006 model-year vehicles was 21 miles per gallon, the same as the year-ago level. Detroit automakers trailed their fast-growing Japanese, Korean and European counterparts, the report found.
Wonderful, 21 miles per gallon, almost exactly the same mileage we were getting back in 1982 - the year "Tootsie" was the most popular movie in America, and Ronald Reagan had just been in the White House for a year. In other words, despite tremendous improvements in automotive technology, which COULD HAVE increased fuel economy by leaps and bounds, we've gotten nowhere fast the past 2 decades. Instead, automakers have been using that technology to build bigger, heavier, and higher profit vehicles. We're talking Yukons, Suburbans, even Hummers, vehicles that get as little as 8 or 10 mpg, even though technology exists TODAY to get 50 mpg or even 100+ mpg.
The consequences of consuming 25% of the world's oil? Melting ice caps, starving polar bears, and dependence on regimes - Iran, Venezuela - that aren't our friends. So why isn't the United States on a crash, Apollo-style program to slash our oil consumption? Why hasn't President Bush taken any serious action to accelerate the penetration of technologies that already exist, while promoting new technologies that could rapidly get us to a 50 or even 100 mpg fleet average? You think it has something to do with this?
Why hasn't the Bush Administration and Republican Congress - George Allen and friends - embraced Barack Obama's idea on this subject?
I believe we should make the auto companies a deal that could solve this problem. It+óGé¼Gäós a piece of legislation I introduced called +óGé¼+ôHealth Care for Hybrids,+óGé¼-¥ and it would allow the federal government to pick up part of the tab for the auto companies+óGé¼Gäó retiree health care costs. In exchange, the auto companies would then use some of that savings to build and invest in more fuel-efficient cars.
Does that make too much sense or what? Apparently, it does to GeorgeBushAllen and Company.
Lowell Feld is Netroots Coordinator for the Jim Webb for US Senate Campaign. The ideas expressed here belong to Lowell Feld alone, and do not necessarily represent those of Jim Webb, his advisors, staff, or supporters.