[Carfreeliving] Car lighter....

[Brinkman, Cheryl]

Did you expect a post on setting cars on fire?
 
 
Not car free, but car lighter, or lighter car.  I don't really want a
crisis to be the way we get people out of their cars but it is starting
to look like that will be the way it happens.  
 
I wonder if we are ready?  Do any of you think that our local, state, or
federal government has any kind of plan in place to react to a severe
gas shortage?  Do they know how they will enact rationing?  What
priority will be given to whom?  Will only certain cars be allowed on
the road?
 
How was it enforced in the 70's - didn't it go by license plate digit or
number?
 
 
 

Published on Tuesday, March 29, 2005 by Reuters
<http://www.reuters.com/>  

Unlikely Bedfellows Lobby Against U.S. Gas-Guzzlers 

by Chris Baltimore
 	

WASHINGTON -- A group of former national security officials on Monday
took up the cause of weaning U.S. drivers from their oil addiction --
normally the realm of environmental groups -- and asked the Bush
administration to spend $1 billion on lighter, more fuel-efficient
automobiles. 


Retail U.S. gasoline prices now averaging above $2 a gallon make U.S.
reliance on foreign suppliers like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia a looming
national security crisis, a group of 31 national security officials said
in a letter to President Bush. 


"This really constitutes a national security crisis in the making," said
letter signer Frank Gaffney, head of the Center for Security Policy, a
thinktank, and a former Defense Department official under former
President Ronald Reagan. 


Other signers included Robert McFarlane, Reagan's national security
advisor, and James Woolsey, Central Intelligence Agency director under
President Bill Clinton. 


In an uncharacteristic move, the security experts sought input from
groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council, which have long
lobbied for more fuel-efficient cars. 


"It's strange bedfellows but this is actually the real American
majority," said Nicole St. Clair, a spokeswoman for the NRDC. "It's
common sense." 


Policymakers should address rampant oil demand from gas-guzzling
vehicles, and stop trying to solve the problem by opening land like the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, she said. 


The letter urged the government to encourage car makers to design
vehicles from lighter materials to improve mileage. It also endorsed the
use of "plug power" -- hybrid vehicles that can run off internal
batteries for short trips before switching to their internal-combustion
engines. 


The program would cost $1 billion over five years. 


Regulations known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards
require automakers to achieve an average fuel economy of 27.5 miles per
gallon for all passenger cars sold, and 20.7 mpg for vans, sport utility
vehicles and pick-up trucks. The standards have not been tightened for
more than a dozen years due to opposition from Detroit. 


The average fuel economy has steadily dropped since 1988. It was 20.8
mpg for all 2003 model vehicles, according to the Environmental
Protection Agency's annual mileage report. 


McFarlane told the White House that stricter mileage standards could
help cut U.S. crude oil imports in half. 


The group's recommendations gave short shrift to hydrogen-powered
vehicles, a Bush administration priority, because they will take decades
to field. 


U.S. drivers should not depend on foreign suppliers like Saudi Arabia
for security reasons, they said. Although Saudi officials say the
kingdom's oilfields are protected from terror attacks, McFarlane said
the oil installations are "extremely vulnerable from a military point of
view." 


If Saudi oil facilities are damaged, "You're not talking about $100 (per
barrel) oil. You're talking about well beyond that," McFarlane said.
U.S. crude oil prices peaked on March 17 at $57.60 a barrel. 

 

Cheryl Brinkman 
McKesson Corporation 
Sr. Product Manager 
Generic Rx 
415-983-7501 
415-732-2699 - fax 
cheryl.brinkman at mckesson.com <mailto:cheryl.brinkman at mckesson.com>  

 


 

 
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