On a recent blustery day, I stood at the rim of the Snake River canyon southwest of Boise listening to a windborne screech that was followed moments later by a distant roar. The roar came from two gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles making tracks along the rough road at the bottom of the canyon. D.C. On that day, President Bush was unveiling an energy strategy worked out behind closed doors by a task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. Because trucks and SUVs comprise nearly half the vehicles on the road, consumer vehicle fuel efficiency in America is at its lowest point in 20 years. Other environmental indicators in America, from lead in paint to particulate matter in the air, continue to show improvement.
Fuel efficiency is one measure that is going south.
And, to deal with rising demand for fuel, the Bush administration is proposing to drill in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in national forests of the Rockies, and in bird and wildlife sanctuaries in the lower 48 states. Fuel efficiency standards for new cars and trucks have not been changed since 1990. The current standard is 27.5 miles per gallon for automobiles, but only 20.7 mpg for light trucks, a category that includes the behemoth SUVs I saw at the Snake River. If there were an improvement of just 15 percent in miles per gallon for SUVs and light trucks, America would save more oil each year than could be pumped out of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. What might be called a modest use of intelligence, Detroit has resisted as heresy.