Fuzzy Math

Diana Seales, Executive Director of the East Michigan Environmental Action Council in Bloomfield Hills, takes aim at the auto industry’s estimates of increased vehicle costs to comply with CAFE increases to 35 mpg. She refutes the idea that it would take $5,000 per car to comply with the new standards. She states that “…a typical fleet… could easily reach an average of 37 miles per gallon, using existing technology without any reductions in safety or performance.”

What she leaves unsaid is exactly what those technologies are and how much they cost. The two methods most readily available are hybridization and diesel engines. Hybrids increase the cost of a care between $1,500 and $6,000 depending on the model. Diesel engines usually cost about $1,500 to $3,000 more. Both technologies together would be required to come close to a 37 mpg standard, meaning an increase of $3,000 to $9,000 per vehicle. The $5,000 estimate as a fleet-wide average seems about reasonable.

What is particularly frustrating about the whole process is that past CAFE standards have not resulted in any reductions in pollution or in fuel consumption. The auto industry has been singled out as the great bogyman destroying the environment even though only about 1/6 of greenhouse gases come from passenger vehicles. Many other means could be used to get the same greenhouse gas reductions and would cost substantially less than $5,000 every three to four years: mandating programmable thermostats, revising building codes to improve insulation, eliminating incandescent light bulbs and replacing them with LED or compact fluorescents, requiring that rechargeable devices in the house have full switch-off mechanisms so they do not use electricity when not charging, improved efficiency standards for household appliances, reductions in the maximum temperature of hot water heaters, more energy efficient windows, etc.

The auto industry has been made a scapegoat and the result will be tens of thousands of lost jobs and the real possibility of at least one of the Big Three collapsing. Other methods of doing the same thing are out there if we act in a comprehensive manner. Why lay the entire responsibility on the heads of the American auto workers?

Don't believe scare tactics on gas mileage
The Detroit News

The July 9 story, "Carmaker's push fuel bill harder" manipulated the facts surrounding Rep. Ed Markey's (D-Mass.) fuel efficiency bill.

The article claims it would "cost domestic automakers at least $85 billion, adding as much as $5,000 to the cost of each vehicle. They could also force automakers to stop selling the largest vehicles, shrink the power of engines and add more hybrids." However, it fails to point out that this is nothing more than a scare tactic used by the auto lobby that stands in direct conflict with the facts.

An independent study has shown that within the next 10 to 15 years, a typical fleet including midsize cars, minivans, and large pick-up trucks, could easily reach an average of 37 miles per gallon, using existing technology and without any reductions in safety or performance. Markey's proposal is more than doable.

Rather than limit consumer choice and the viability of our auto industry, such legislation could spark innovation and broaden the appeal of American cars sold at home and abroad. We desperately need these long-waited reforms to bring Detroit back up to speed.

Diana Seales
Executive Director, East Michigan
Environmental Action Council
Bloomfield Hills