05.09.06

At Hearing, Cantwell Questions Transportation Secretary and Automakers on Strengthening Fuel Economy Standards

WASHINGTON, DC – Tuesday, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) served as the Ranking Member for a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. At the hearing, Cantwell asked witnesses to analyze the impact of 20 years of stagnant CAFE standards, questioned the Administration’s claim that they need additional Congressional authority, and identified the technologies available to improve fuel economy and boost the use of alternative fuels.

[Cantwell’s opening statement, as prepared for delivery, follows below]

“I think every member on this Committee, and hopefully the entire Congress, realizes that we are facing a very challenging energy situation. We are just a major hurricane, or turmoil in a major oil producing nation, or, god forbid, some terrorist attack or accident that takes part of our energy infrastructure out of commission, from energy price spikes that could stop our economy cold.

“And that’s in the short-term. In the long-term—and I’m just talking about a few years out—if we stay on the path we are on, if we don’t challenge America to work together and harness our innovative spirit and ingenuity, we are headed for years of crippling high energy costs.

“That would mean continued distortions to our foreign policy objectives, oil companies continuing to reap exorbitant profits, and hundreds of billions of dollars more would be drained from the pocketbooks of American families to the Middle East and other nations that don’t necessarily have our interests at heart.

“I know that’s a future we all want to avoid. But the only way to really tackle the problem, the only way to start really improving our energy, environmental, and homeland security is to make our transportation system more productive. “We need to need to get more bang for our buck. Our cars need to go farther for each gallon of fuel we buy.

“That’s because the vast majority of the petroleum used in our economy fuels our transportation needs. And since the mid-1980s, U.S. oil demand in the transportation sector surpassed our domestic production. Without government leadership, this gap will only grow.

“History proves how effective Congressional action in this area can be. Following the first oil embargo in the 1970s—by the same Middle Eastern countries on whom we are even more dependent today—Congress legislated the CAFE program as one of the least controversial provisions of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975.

“Thirty years ago, this body heard many of the same warnings we are hearing today. We heard that fuel economy standards will render this nation’s auto manufacturers extinct, that it will cost thousands of jobs, that it will reduce vehicle safety. But the 94th Congress rejected those erroneous claims and passed a visionary law that was in the best interests of our nation.

“The record affirms their foresight. In the decade following enactment, our nation doubled the fuel economy of our Nation’s passenger vehicles. Those savings mean that today our nation is importing nearly three million barrels per day less than we would have without the 1975 legislation. Put another way, American consumers are avoiding paying for an amount of oil equivalent to what we today import annually from the entire Persian Gulf.”

“But let’s fast forward to the increasingly alarming situation today. Because our nation’s fuel economy standards have remained frozen for almost two decades, we are importing about twice as much oil as we did in 1975. And we now understand that burning petroleum not only pollutes our environment and impacts our health, it will probably permanently warm our climate. And Americans are logging more than twice as many vehicle miles per person than they did 30 years ago.

“How did we let this happen? “I hope we can talk about that a bit at today’s hearing, with our impressive set of witnesses. But I don’t want to spend too much time looking backward. I don’t want this hearing to be a series of questions about whether Japan made better investment decisions than Detroit.

“I want to look forward to the future. I want to understand from the automakers and autoworkers what it will take to make Detroit profitable again.

“I want to know what we need to do to keep our manufacturing jobs here at home, and keep our union workers strong and able to support their families.

“We probably can never go back to before the energy shocks of the 1970s, when the Big Three sold approximately 9 out of every 10 vehicles that were on the road in the U.S. But I believe we can move forward together.

“We can make our nation’s vehicles more efficient. We can reduce the cost of gasoline on the family budget, and we can put our farmers in the fuel business rather than sending our money to autocratic regimes abroad.

“So I hope we can work cooperatively as a Committee to develop meaningful legislation. It was Congress that pushed the ball forward in the 1970s, it is our responsibility to our constituents to do so again.

“And I sincerely hope this can be a non-partisan issue. My predecessor Senator Gorton was very active in trying to solve this problem. In fact, if his 1990 bill to raise CAFE standards would have become law, today’s cars would average about 40 mpg and light trucks, 29 mpg. The United States would be saving about a million barrels of oil a day, on its way to saving 3 million barrels per day.

“Instead, the average fuel economy of new vehicles is at a 20 year low. Unfortunately, recent proposals to increase fuel economy standards, even very modest, have fallen short, although always with Democratic majorities.

“Maybe it is time to look beyond the CAFE structure and develop a new system that allows innovative manufacturers to compete for direct incentives within a wide range of vehicle classes. Large trucks would compete with large trucks; sedans would compete with other sedans. This concept would be market-based and technology neutral, centered on an individual car’s performance and lifetime fuel usage.

“Above all we must ensure Americans can continue to buy any type and size of vehicle they desire, and that future vehicles have at least the same level of performance, comfort, and safety as today’s vehicle choices.

“Mr. Chairman, now is the time to provide the leadership on this issue that has been missing for the last 20 years. Simply put, improving the fuel economy of our nation’s vehicles is the easiest and most cost-effective way to reduce our nation’s vulnerability to oil supply shocks and dependence on unfriendly regimes.

“I look forward to working with my Committee colleagues to endorse and act on the numerous security, environmental, and consumer benefits that increasing the efficiency of our nation’s transportation system.”

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