Global Warming News

PORTLAND—After the Pacific Northwest’s first month in history with gasoline prices hovering around $3 a gallon, Governor Kulongoski today joined OSPIRG to call on the Oregon Congressional delegation to vote for a proposal to increase automobile gas mileage standards to 33 miles per gallon (mpg). OSPIRG also released a study finding that a 33 mpg standard would save Oregonians $223 million annually.

"I am convinced that if left to the Bush administration, it will be another several years before we see any increase in vehicle efficiency standards,” the Governor said. “I am not optimistic those increases will be meaningful. Our best chance is to prevail upon Congress to adopt a meaningful fuel efficiency standard of 33 miles per gallon."

“The best way to break America’s oil habit and save consumers money at the pump is to make our cars and SUVs go farther on a gallon of gasoline,” said OSPIRG Energy Advocate Jeremiah Baumann. “Better gas mileage standards save Oregonians money, reduce our dependence on oil, and cut global warming pollution.”

OSPIRG and Governor Kulongoski were joined by David Yudkin, co-owner of Hot Lips Pizza. “Doesn’t it make sense to extend that original wisdom to the cars we drive?” said Yudkin. “What the Governor is asking of Congress today is rooted in respect for precious recourses, not only gasoline but for our environment on which our economy is based and health depends.”

As early as this week, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on a fuel economy bill introduced by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) that allows the Bush administration to re-structure the fuel economy program for passenger cars without guaranteeing that cars will get better gas mileage. Reps. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) plan to introduce an amendment to the bill requiring an increase in the average fuel economy of cars and SUVs to 33 mpg by 2016.

“The good news is that we already have the technology to make our cars and SUVs get 40 mpg,” said Baumann. “We need Congress to put American know-how to work to cut oil demand and save consumers money.”

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has estimated that increasing the fuel economy of cars and SUVs to 33 mpg by 2016 would reduce America’s oil demand by 500,000 barrels of oil per day in 2015 and 2.1 million barrels of oil per day in 2025. Nationwide, consumers would save at least $19 billion at the pump in 2015 and $79 billion in 2025.

OSPIRG also released a new study showing that if the Bush administration had raised gas mileage in 2001 as part of its energy policy, which instead subsidized oil and gas companies, Oregonians would be enjoying net savings of $98 million this year. The U.S. would be consuming 500,000 fewer barrels of oil per day, avoiding 34 million tons of global warming pollution, and Americans would be saving $8.7 billion at the gas pump.

The OSPIRG study also included analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists finding that if Congress raises gas mileage standards to 33 mpg, the U.S. would cut its oil consumption by 500,000 barrels per day in 2015, when American consumers would be saving $15 billion annually. The U.S. would cut its global warming pollution by 84 million tons.