President Barack Obama was widely supported by environmental groups in his bid to become the Chief Executive, but now leaders of those groups are chiding him to do more about fuel economy. The nation’s largest environmental groups recently penned an open letter to Obama, calling for him to create long-term relief for drivers at the pump by delivering strong fuel-efficiency and auto pollution standards for new vehicles. The administration is set to propose new fuel-efficiency and auto-pollution regulations this September. In a letter signed by 34 environmental, science, and public health organizations -- including the Union of Concerned Scientists, Environment America, the Sierra Club, and Republicans for Environmental Protection -- environmental activists urged the adoption of very ambitious (critics would say radical) new fuel-economy standards.
Rejecting the assertion that the only way to offer relief for American drivers struggling with $4-a-gallon gasoline is to expand domestic drilling, the letter claimed the best chance the president has to create long-term fuel savings is to demand that new vehicles use the fuel they consume as efficiently as possible. It cited a study by Environment America that found that if cars and trucks achieved a 60-mpg level of fuel economy at today’s current gas prices, the average American family would save $513 at the gas pump this summer. Critics of the letter insist that a 60-mpg standard would so radically alter cars and trucks that they would be nearly unrecognizable and perhaps useless.
According to the groups’ joint letter to the president, the strongest standards under consideration would reduce U.S. oil consumption by 2.5 million barrels of oil per day in 2030 -- almost 50 percent more oil than we imported last year from the Persian Gulf. It also asserted that the strongest standards would protect our health and environment by preventing two times more of what it called “global-warming pollution” than the weakest proposal. It will be interesting to see where Obama lands on this issue as we near the 2012 election.
