It's been 22 years since the U.S. toughened its fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks. Many of us paying above $3.00 a gallon for gasoline think the time is right to increase those standards. Unfortunately, that might not happen for another 13 to 15 years.
Congress is set to debate this fall competing bills that would require cars and trucks to get better gas mileage. Current corporate auto fuel economy regulations or CAFE rules call for cars to get an average 27 miles per gallon of gasoline. Trucks must get 22 miles per gallon on average. One bill before Congress increases those numbers to 35 and 32 miles per gallon respectively. Another bill calls for all vehicles to get 35 miles per gallon of fuel. While both bills are a step in the right direction, neither would take affect for more than a decade.
That is a problem. Hybrid, biodiesel, and clean diesel technologies already exist and some hybrids get up to 40 miles per gallon of gasoline. So, why do we have to wait so long for increased fuel efficiency? That is a question that James Schrager, management professor at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, is asking.
Schrager points to Europe where fuel economy is much greater and says, "Why can't we be like them?" That's a valid question. One problem here is that we don't drive the kinds of products folks in Europe drive. They drive little cars. We drive a lot of big minivans and sport utilities and getting better fuel economy from them is harder. Plus, trucks have higher profit margins than cars, so U.S. auto companies and even foreign ones want to keep making them.
So, the responsibility may lie with us -- the consumers. If we want more fuel efficient vehicles, we have to demand them and buy them. That may be the most effective message to send auto companies and Congress...if we want better fuel mileage sooner.
Comments
Did you know the island of Great Britain fits inside the state of Wyoming? That's why we can't be like Europe. If the consumer doesn't like the price of gasoline, slow down, drive less, drive smaller, exercise some personal responsibility w/o whining to mommy in D.C.
Auto makers build what people want to buy. As the demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles rises (matching gasoline prices), manufacturers are building them. The new B size cars (Honda Fit, Nissan Versa, Toyota Yaris) came from overseas as a quick fill. Diesels are coming more widely in the next two years. One of the limits to efficiency is our own government regulations. In Europe, diesels and gas engines have different emissions standards. Diesels are naturally cleaner on some pollutants, and dirtier on others. They recognize that and make different standards. Not so in the US. Diesels have to be as clean as gas engines in all areas. We had to get low sulphur diesel in place, now the engines will come.
Hydrogen is not the answer - we have no source for hydrogen. Priuses aren't the answer - without a hybrid that's already an efficient car. Diesels will easily cut 10-20% of our fuel consumption on cars and light trucks, and make much better economic sense than hybrids. Long term we should move to electric cars, which can charge at night and have a much higher cycle efficiency than combustion engines of any type.
The market will drive these changes better than the government.
If you want fuel efficiency, raise fuel taxes to get fuel to the $4/gal range. Spend the tax money on roads and transportation, not on social programs that are unrelated.
Clearly, if consumers always did what was in their best interest, we wouldn't have obesity, drug addiction or bankruptcy. The Europeans, I think, understand this better than us Americans and they have policies that aim to protect the "long-term" interests and needs of the "majority" of their people, even if that means, at times, limiting what a minority might want. If it were not for government regulations, we would not have seat belts, air bags, safety glass or pollution controls in our vehicles (much less gas mileage standards). No, those that constantly rail against having increased and mandatory gas mileage requirements are, at best, short sighted and selfish and, at worst, are defending policies which will lead to economic and ecological disaster. Nothing important in terms of people's health and welfare has ever come about without government involvement, government incentives or government mandates. If you care more about consumable "things" and instant gratification, rather than people (especially the next generation), then you will always resist anything that impedes your ability to get such things. TOO BAD - grow up already!!!
Seems to me the entire Auto industry has repeatedly traveled down this long disruptive road in previous periods.Beginning in the mid 70's every time an energy crunch hits the domestic industry made changes for the sake of efficiencies only to end up producing product that was not profitable or accepted by consumers only for short periods of time.Every time this debate comes up there is always an academic professor instead of industry professionals that claims to have all of the answers.Europe is a congested continent by its own design.If this country were as congested as europe then it may be a good suggestion that we all exist as the europeans do,however this is NOT europe and hopefully never will be.Instead of Washington attacking industry as it does, a better idea would be to re-route those (Multi-Billion dollar) energy related tax credits given to the oil companies (every year)to get started on building and installing new Hydrogen related technologies and filling stations to move us away from gasoline and petroleum related fuels.