As the new home of OSPIRG's environmental work, Environment Oregon can be contacted regarding this news release.Our
governor and attorney general is doing the right thing by working to
force change at the federal level to help Oregonians facing
budget-busting gas prices. Better gas mileage not only saves money at
the gas pump, it’s also one of the biggest steps America can take to
curb global warming pollution.
The
federal government forbids states setting their own gas mileage
standards but has refused to make any meaningful change to mileage
standards, which haven’t increased since the 1980s. And because SUVs
have a lower standard, and SUV sales have increased in recent years,
the average vehicle on the road gets worse gas mileage today than it
did in the 80s years ago.
The
Bush administration could have changed all of this, protected Americans
from vulnerability to volatile gas prices, and started addressing
global warming, simply by changing gas mileage standards. According to
OSPIRG research, if the Bush administration had increased gas mileage
standards to 40 miles per gallon (which the National Academy of
Sciences says is achievable) as part of their energy plan back in 2001,
Americans would be saving $8.7 billion at the gas pump this year alone.
Fortunately,
Oregon has already been leading the way. The Clean Cars program,
adopted by the Environmental Quality Commission temporarily in
December, will set tight limits on global warming pollution limits from
cars and trucks. Even though Oregon isn’t allowed to regulate gas
mileage, auto companies are likely to comply with the Clean Cars
program by increasing gas mileage.
With
today’s announcement, Governor Kulongoski and Attorney General Myers
have demonstrated Oregon’s leadership in fighting global warming once
again.
