Rainforest Action Network

With Detroit’s North American International Auto Show in full swing this week, the industry is again abuzz with promises of fuel efficiency and energy alternatives that will power transportation in the 21^st century.  The stream of prototypes, innovative propulsion systems, and alternative fuel options on display in Detroit is clearly a response to growing concerns about energy security, climate change, job loss, and the health of America’s iconic car companies. The question is: will this year’s new concepts be enough to break America’s oil addiction and reinvigorate the struggling American auto industry?

GM is on the right track with the Chevy Volt and E-flex platform and should be applauded when the Volt hits the road.  Plugging our cars into existing clean, domestic energy is the best way to keep Americans from paying the price at the pump for our dangerous dependence on oil. Unfortunately, the Volt will not be road ready for years, meaning it will do nothing to help GM achieve better fuel efficiency now. Meanwhile, GM’s lawyers will be in court in California this month leading the lawsuit to block groundbreaking greenhouse gas regulations.

Toyota has abdicated its role as an environmental leader with the debut of the Tundra ‘Crew Max,’ the largest and most inefficient truck it has ever built. Though consumers are still lining up to buy Toyota’s signature hybrid Prius, the automaker is suddenly opting to build Detroit-style behemoths. Ford’s eco-Way Forward in 2007 is an outlandish plug-in hydrogen-hybrid prototype that will never make its way into a single American garage. With no plan for production, the company’s new ‘Airstream’ concept car was never intended to help address Ford’s financial woes or the consumer demand for fuel efficient vehicles.

Compared to Daimler-Chrysler, the other automakers’ actions of the past few days come across as downright enlightened. Chrysler’s chief economist, Van Jolissaint, derided “quasi-hysterical Europeans” for their “chicken little” views on global warming at a recent private breakfast that included economists from Ford and GM – neither of whom disputed Jollisaint’s outrageous remarks. Chrysler’s position on global warming is like saying the that the earth is flat, and despite a few eco-cars, the rest of the automakers’ lawsuits and lobbying seem to support them.

We are calling on the automakers to join us in an effort to significantly improve fuel-economy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to a JD Power and Associates poll, three out of four Americans are considering a hybrid for their next purchase[1]. Yet, in Detroit, automakers can’t seem to get innovative petroleum-optional cars off the drawing board and on to our roads. A company that is truly on the road to recovery would:

Step 1: Lobby for better fuel economy standards. America’s cars waste more gas now than they did 20 years ago, in part because automakers have blocked every congressional action to improve fuel economy. It’s time for automakers to help America set a new standard.

Step 2: Drop the lawsuits.  How can anyone believe GM, Ford or Toyota when they claim to be environmentally friendly yet spend millions on lawsuits to stop state and federal governments from protecting future generations from the effects of climate change? The automakers need business plans for the 21^st century that cope with global warming rather than deny it.

Step 3: Commit to leading the industry in fuel economy. A three mpg increase in the fuel economy of U.S. cars would save our country a million barrels of oil per day. A fuel economy average of 40 mpg would save us more than the amount of oil we import from the Persian Gulf[2] and the Arctic Refuge combined[3] and prevents the release of 106 million tons of CO2 a year. Ford and GM are laying off a combined 80,000[4] workers in 2007 when they could be creating 161,000 new jobs by helping us achieve freedom from oil.

With Democrats now the majority in congress, 2007 should offer new opportunities for automakers to ally with politicians pushing for energy independence. It’s not too late for America’s automakers to embrace new laws and produce new vehicles that will keep driving our economy by breaking our addiction to oil.

Michael Brune and Kirsten Moller are the executive directors of Rainforest Action Network and Global Exchange, which, along with the Ruckus Society, comprises the Freedom from Oil Campaign.

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