Recently, the CEOs of Chrysler, Ford and General Motors lunched with Senate leaders, telling them the one-third vehicle mileage increase proposed by George W. Bush and Barack Obama – you heard that right, Bush and Obama have offered nearly identical fuel-efficiency plans – was impossible. Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, said at a news conference after the lunch that a one-third mileage improvement “doesn’t look achievable.”
This is exactly the kind of excuse-making that allowed Honda and Toyota to wrap their hands around the Big Three’s necks in the first place! As the UAW-Detroit contracts talks heat up, the relationship between mpg and saving Chrysler, Ford and General Motors bears exploring.
The National Academy of Sciences said in 2002 that a one-third improvement in mpg is practical using existing technology, and without sacrifice of safety or passenger comfort. Now, the U.S. automakers claim a one-third improvement can’t be done. It’s not that Detroit cannot achieve better fuel economy – it’s that Detroit doesn’t want to. What the current executive-suite suits at the Big Three want is to maximize their bonuses and stock options during their short stays at the top, then let somebody else take the blame for the next round of decline of the U.S. auto industry that is inevitable if fuel economy does not improve.
And that’s setting aside the national-security implications. A one-third increase in car and SUV mpg is what’s needed to break U.S. dependence on Persian Gulf oil. Wouldn’t it be nice if Detroit CEOs acted as though they cared about national security!
This summer, the Senate passed something that on paper seemed even better than the Bush-Obama plan, ordering a 40 percent mpg improvement by 2020; the House has yet to act. But although the Bush-Obama plan had teeth, specifying that carmakers show annual mpg improvement beginning immediately, the Senate provision contained a huge asterisk: There are no annual milestones, just a requirement that the mpg rise be accomplished by 2020.
That gives Detroit the green light to spend most of the next 13 years doing nothing about petroleum waste, and there is no endeavor in which American automakers are more accomplished than doing nothing about petroleum waste. Plus, the Senate bill contains a waiver provision – as the 2020 deadline approaches, automakers can request a waiver. Thus the Senate mpg bill, widely praised by gullible editorialists, actually is pure froth.
Now remember that little phrase, “the House has yet to act.” Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who boasts about how she will take the bold steps the president will not, won’t allow a floor vote on any mileage provision. Pelosi says new mpg rules can be negotiated in conference committee – that is, in secret, with no public disclosure.
And she hasn’t even scheduled a conference.
George W. Bush proposed a strong, binding program of immediate mpg increases, and Democrats in the House refuse to allow an up-or-down public vote. The calculus is that Pelosi wants to prevent any kind of reform from passing so that, in the 2008 presidential election, Democrats can denounce Republicans for lack of progress on mpg. Wouldn’t it be nice if House Democrats acted as though they cared about national security!