The Sierra Club has long contended that fuel efficiency standards should and could be boosted to 45 mpg for cars and 34 mpg for trucks. If Clinton meant for Car Talks to get him off the political hook, the strategy failed. Predictably, oil- industry reps at the table blew a gasket. In the end, the committee majority abandoned hope of reaching a compromise agreement with the recalcitrant industries. But boosting CAFE standards to 45 mpg, the report emphasizes, is the most important single step.
Industry execs, on the other hand, want to move at a far more leisurely pace.
Nothing else will curb global warming as much. If Sierra 's bimonthly award hadn't existed before, it would have had to be invented just for him. All national polls to the contrary, Tauzin fancies that his brand of extreme anti-environmentalism is the wave of the future. It's just heating up right now, and it's going to get hotter. Since 1989, Tauzin has collected over a quarter of a million dollars from these corporations.