Clean Air News

As the new home of NMPIRG's environmental work, Environment New Mexico can be contacted with any questions regarding this news release.

Consumers will spend almost twice as much as they should to travel to Memorial Day hotspots, because of shortsighted automobile fuel economy policies, according to a report released today by NMPIRG Education Fund.

The new NMPIRG Education Fund report - "Going Nowhere: The Price Consumers Pay for Stalled Fuel Economy Policies"- details how the Bush administration is failing to take action to reduce oil demand and protect consumers from skyrocketing gasoline prices.

NMPIRG compared the current fleet-wide fuel economy average of 20.8 miles per gallon to the technologically achievable 40 miles per gallon. NMPIRG found that, had the achievable technology already been implemented, consumers this holiday weekend would pay $72 million less nationally, and $434,381 less in New Mexico. Consumers nationwide would also be using 35.7 million fewer barrels of oil.

"Consumers are at the mercy of volatile gasoline prices because of America's over-dependence on oil," said Judith Espinosa. "The only way to protect consumers from skyrocketing gas prices is to reduce oil demand by increasing fuel economy," she concluded.

According to an analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists, implementing a 40 mile per gallon automobile fuel economy standard over a ten year period would reduce transportation oil consumption by one-third by 2020, save consumers $16 billion at the gas pump, and reduce global warming emissions from cars and trucks by 20 percent.

"Not only has the Bush administration opposed significantly increasing fuel economy standards, they have also proposed taking us backward by allowing larger vehicles to meet lower fuel economy standards," said Robert Peek.

"While they reject the solutions already at hand, the Bush administration and oil companies put all the blame on OPEC and increasing crude oil prices for high gasoline prices. This finger pointing overlooks a fundamental problem that we can actually solve: America is too dependent on oil," added Peek. "Making our cars go farther on a gallon of gas will go a long way toward reducing that dependency," he added.

Peek pointed out that, in addition to saving consumers at the gas pump by reducing oil demand, increasing fuel economy also cuts down on the tail pipe emissions that cause global warming. U.S. PIRG announced the launch of a new web site, www.wecanstopglobalwarming.com, to coincide with this weekend's opening of the blockbuster movie, The Day After Tomorrow, which depicts a worst-case global warming scenario. The purpose of the web site is to educate the public about the realities of global warming, and to facilitate a call for leadership to end global warming pollution.

"Although the movie is fiction, global warming is a fact," said Peek. "The single best step toward saving consumers money at the gas pump, reducing America's oil dependence, and curbing global warming pollution is to increase fuel economy to 40 miles per gallon for all cars and trucks over the next 10 years," added Peek.