AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

Bush Admin Holds Back Report on Energy Efficiency

At the same time Congress was poised to vote on the President's "energy plan"; the EPA was supposed to release a report on declining fuel efficiency in new motor vehicles. According to the EPA report, all of the net technical advances in the past ten years have either gone to making cars bigger or faster. The EPA was supposed to release the report - but on orders from above, it was held up -- EXCEPT -- a copy was leaked to the New York Times. Whoops! The big kabosh probably had something to do with the fact that the new Bush Energy Plan does nothing to discourage driving of big gas-guzzling vehicles or vehicles that are powered far beyond the needs of ordinary driving. It also does nothing to discourage unnecessary driving in general.

Not only has fuel consumption gone up, highway safety has been stuck in neutral. Though cars today have more safety features than ever, increasing vehicle weight, speed and traffic density have made the over-all highway fatality rate remain constant at around 40,000 deaths per year. To put this in perspective, this amount is about eight times the amount of people who died because of the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001. It is about 3/4 the amount of U.S. deaths in the Viet Nam War. Each year's traffic deaths dwarf the number of troops lost in Iraq. When the question comes as to who is responsible for this country's dependency on foreign oil, there is plenty of blame to go around, enough to fill all the garages in the country. Still, you'd think an ounce of leadership from the top would help things. We're just an ounce short.





E.P.A. Holds Back Report on Car Fuel Efficiency - New York Times