Statutory authority to improve fuel economy has existed for 35 years at the Transportation Department, and it still exists today.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
We have to be aware that fossil fuel energy sources have an expiry date. A timeframe of 30, 40 or 50 years can seem a long time to get rewards for economic policy, but it's only a short time for implementing a new energy policy.
So the only way we're going to improve fuel economy or appliance efficiency swiftly and to the maximum extent practicable is if the government requires it.
The problem is, is that President Bush and the Republican leadership in the Congress have resisted attempts to increase dramatically our fuel economy standards over the last five years.
Scientists at MIT and engineering schools all across America say that they could improve the fuel economy standards for the existing set of vehicles by 10 miles per gallon using existing technology, without compromising safety or comfort at all.
Over time, the federal government should move the nation to a single standard, clean-burning gasoline.
For decades, NRDC has created and supported policies that will ultimately end our reliance on fossil fuels.
Back in the mid-1970s, we adopted some fairly ambitious goals to improve efficiency of our cars. What did we get? We got a tremendous boost in efficiency.
Can we achieve 140 mpg fuel economy? You bet. Just get the bureaucrats out of the way, and Yankee ingenuity will do the rest.
Conserving fuel is fine, and it was great in the past. The problem is that the drivers don't have to do it. It's all done electronically. You sit there, and it saves fuel for you, and that defeats the purpose.
Beginning in 1973 and then acts in '77, '78, 1980, 1994 and then into the 21st century in the international arena, governments have steadily gotten out of the transportation business.