[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 17 (Thursday, January 30, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1819-S1821]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Ms. Snowe, Ms. Collins, Ms. 
        Cantwell, Mr. Corzine, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Jeffords, Mr. 
        Leahy, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Reed, Mr. Schumer, and Mrs. Clinton):
  S. 255. A bill to amend title 49, United States Code, to require 
phased increases in the fuel efficiency standards applicable to light 
trucks; to require fuel economy standards for automobiles up to 10,000 
pounds gross vehicle weight; to increase the fuel economy of the 
Federal fleet of vehicles, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senators Snowe, 
Collins, Cantwell, Corzine, Dodd, Durbin, Jeffords, Leahy, Murray, 
Reed, Clinton, and Schumer in introducing legislation to increase 
Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency, CAFE, Standards for SUVs and other 
light duty trucks.
  This bill will close the ``SUV Loophole,'' and require that SUVs meet 
the same fuel efficiency standards as passenger cars by 2011.
  Simply put, this legislation is the single most important step the 
United States can take to limit dependence on foreign oil and better 
protect our environment.
  If implemented, closing the SUV Loophole would: Save the U.S. 1 
million barrels of oil a day and reduce our dependence on foreign oil 
imports by 10 percent. Prevent about 240 million tons of carbon 
dioxide--the top greenhouse gas and biggest single cause of global 
warming from entering the atmosphere each year. Save SUV and light duty 
truck owners hundreds of dollars each year in gasoline costs.
  CAFE standards were first established in 1975. At that time, light 
trucks made up only a small percentage of the vehicles on the road, 
they were used mostly for agriculture and commerce, not as passenger 
cars.
  Today, our roads look much different, SUVs and light duty trucks 
comprise more than half of the new car sales in the United States.
  As a result, the overall fuel economy of our Nation's fleet is the 
lowest it has been in two decades, because fuel economy standards for 
these vehicles are so much lower than they are for other passenger 
vehicles.
  The bill we are introducing today would change that, SUVs and other 
light duty trucks would have to meet the same fuel economy requirements 
by 2011 that passenger cars meet today.
  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA, has 
proposed phasing in an increase in fuel economy standards for SUVs and 
light trucks under the following schedule: by 2005, SUVs and light 
trucks would have to average 21.0 miles per gallon; by 2006, SUVs and 
light trucks would have to average 21.6 miles per gallon; and by 2007, 
SUVs and light trucks would have to average 22.2 miles per gallon.
  Last year, the National Academy of Sciences, NAS, released a report 
stating that adequate lead time can bring about substantive increases 
in fuel economy standards. Automakers can meet higher CAFE standards if 
existing technologies are utilized and included in new models of SUVs 
and light trucks.
  And earlier this month, the head of the National Highway Traffic 
Safety Administration said he favored an increase in vehicle fuel 
economy standards beyond the 1.5-mile-per-gallon hike slated to go into 
effect by 2007. ``We can do better,'' said Jeffrey Runge in an 
interview with Congressional Green Sheets. ``The overriding goal here 
is better fuel economy to decrease our reliance on foreign oil without 
compromising safety or American jobs,'' he said.
  With this in mind, we have developed the following phase-in schedule 
which would follow up on what NHTSA has proposed for the short term and 
remain consistent with what the NAS report said is technologically 
feasible over the next decade or so: by 2008, SUVs and light duty 
vehicles would have to average 23.5 miles per gallon; by 2009, SUVs and 
light duty vehicles would have to average 24.8 miles per gallon; by 
2010, SUVs and light duty vehicles would have to average 26.1 miles per 
gallon, by 2011, SUVs and light duty vehicles would have to average 
27.5 miles per gallon.
  This legislation would do two other things: 1. It would mandate that 
by 2007 the average fuel economy of the new vehicles comprising the 
Federal fleet must be 3 miles per gallon higher than the baseline 
average fuel economy for that class. And by 2010, the average fuel 
economy of the new federal vehicles must be 6 miles per gallon higher 
than the baseline average fuel economy for that class.

[[Page S1820]]

  2. The bill also increases the weight limit within which vehicles are 
bound by CAFE standards to make it harder for automotive manufacturers 
to build SUVs large enough to become exempted from CAFE standards. 
Because SUVs are becoming larger and larger, some may become so large 
that they will no longer qualify as even SUVs anymore.
  We are introducing this legislation because we believe that the 
United States needs to take a leadership role in the fight against 
global warming.
  The International Panel on Climate Change, estimates that the Earth's 
average temperature could rise by as much as 10 degrees in the next 100 
years, the most rapid change in 10,000 years.
  This would have a major effect on our way of life. It would melt the 
polar ice caps, decimate our coastal cities, and cause global climate 
change.
  We are already seeing the effects of warming: In November, the Los 
Angeles Times published an article about the vanishing glaciers of 
Glacier National Park in Montana. Over a century ago, 150 of these 
magnificent glaciers could be seen on the high cliffs and jagged peaks 
of the surrounding mountains of the park. Today, there are only 35. And 
these 35 glaciers that remain today are disintegrating so quickly that 
scientists estimate the park will have no glaciers in 30 years.
  This melting seen in Glacier National Park can also be seen around 
the world, from the snows of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to the ice 
fields beneath Mt. Everest in the Himalayas. Experts also predict that 
glaciers in the high Andes, the Swiss Alps, and even Iceland could 
disappear in coming decades as well. These dwindling glaciers offer the 
clearest and most visible sign of climate change in America and the 
rest of the world.
  Yet, the Administration has walked away from the negotiating table 
for the Kyoto Protocol. This is a big mistake. The United States is now 
the largest energy consumer in the world, with 4 percent of the world's 
population using 25 percent of the planet's energy. We should be a 
leader when it comes to combating global warming.
  The single most effective action our nation can take to limit 
reliance on foreign oil and reduce global warming is to increase the 
fuel efficiency of our vehicles. The simplest way to do this is to 
simply bring the fuel efficiency standards for light trucks and sport 
utility vehicles, SUVs, into conformance with other passenger vehicles.
  I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I am pleased to join with Senator Feinstein 
today in renewing the call we made in the 107th Congress for improving 
vehicle fuel economy by taking logical steps to close the SUV loophole 
provided to the ``light truck'' category in the Federal Corporate 
Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, Program.
  My colleague has been a passionate advocate of this proposal, and I 
am proud to work with her again in introducing S. 255, our practical, 
attainable bill that can garner the kind of broad support necessary to 
address this national imperative this year. I know when we introduced 
our plan in 2001, some believed it was too much too soon, while others 
felt it didn't go far enough. But can anyone honestly say we are better 
off today without nothing? That we are in better shape because we 
failed to pass what is possible 2 years ago?
  Just think about where we would be today, we would be a model year 
away from giving consumers greater choices in purchasing more fuel 
efficient SUVs. And we would also be that much closer to controlling 
our own energy destiny by reducing our reliance on foreign oil, all the 
more critical at a time when the current strike in Venezuela and the 
situation in Iraq make already volatile world oil markets even more 
precarious. As an oil analyst with the Deutsche Bank in London recently 
put it, ``The oil markets can stand having one thing go wrong, but not 
two. That's what's happening with Venezuela and Iraq.''
  And it is not as though we haven't been burned by the foreign oil 
market before. It is not as though this is something we have never 
thought of. This year is the 30th anniversary of the Arab oil embargo. 
I recall in the 1970s when the day you were allowed to refuel your car 
was determined by whether the last number of your license plate was odd 
or even. Why hasn't any of this been enough to wean us off this habit?
  Right now, we rely more on foreign oil than ever. In 2001, 55 percent 
of the U.S. total demand was met by oil from abroad, up from 37 percent 
in 1980 around the time when the original CAFE standards took effect, I 
might add, and by 2025 that number will jump to a projected 70 percent 
if we don't take action. With such a large percentage of this imported 
resource coming from such a volatile region of the world, what do we 
need to have happen before we feel a sense of urgency?
  The fact is, this is an emergency, and we can make a difference. Even 
just increasing fuel economy standards for SUVs and light trucks by 1.5 
miles per gallon by model year 2007, which the administration proposes, 
would reduce gasoline consumption by 2.5 billion gallons through that 
year. Just imagine what we could achieve with the proposal Senator 
Feinstein and I are re-introducing, which would phase-in changes in 
CAFE requirements in four, attainable stages that will bring the 
standards for SUV's in line with passenger cars within the next 8 
years.
  Our legislation is backed by the findings of a 2001 National Academy 
of Sciences CAFE report that this body requested in 2000 on CAFE 
standards. The report clearly states that, ``Because of concerns about 
greenhouse gas emissions and the level of oil imports, it is 
appropriate for the Federal Government to ensure fuel economy levels 
beyond those expected to result from market forces alone.''
  I believe that fuel economy through better vehicle mileage is 
probably the most significant and realistic environmental and energy 
independence issue we, as leaders, could tackle this year in developing 
our Nation's energy policy. Had the Senate boosted fuel economy 
standards over a decade ago as proposed by Senators Bryan and Gorton 
rather than defeating the measure by three votes, new vehicles would be 
averaging 33 miles per gallon today instead of 24.5 miles per gallon, 
and the U.S. would have saved more than 1 billion barrels of oil each 
and every day.
  Instead, all our vehicles combined consume 40 percent of our oil, 
while coughing up 20 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, the 
greenhouse gas linked to global climate change. To put this in 
perspective, the amount of carbon dioxide emission just from U.S. 
vehicles alone is the equivalent of the fourth highest carbon dioxide 
emitting country in the world. Given these stunning numbers, how can we 
continue to allow SUVs to spew three times more pollution into the air 
than our passenger cars?
  And it is not just an environmental issue, it is also a pocketbook 
issue, with rising prices at the pump. In fact, according to DOE's 
Energy Information Administration, the typical price for regular 
unleaded gas, now $1.47 per gallon, is a full 37 cents higher than just 
a year ago. Yet ironically, in the past quarter century since the last 
adjustments were made to CAFE standards, overall fuel economy has 
actually fallen to its lowest level since 1980, 24.7 miles per gallon.
  Just think for a moment how much the world has changed 
technologically over the past 25 years. We have seen the advent of the 
home computer and the information age. Computers are now running our 
automobiles, and global positioning system devices are guiding drivers 
to their destinations. Are we to believe that technology couldn't have 
also helped those drivers burn less fuel in getting there? Are we going 
to say that the whole world has transformed, but America doesn't have 
the wherewithal to make SUVs that get better fuel economy?
  Well, I don't believe it, and neither does the National Academy of 
Sciences that issued a report in 2001 in response to Congress' request 
the previous year that the NAS study the issue. They concluded that it 
was possible to achieve a more than 40-percent improvement particularly 
in light truck and SUV fuel economy over a 10-15 year period, and that 
technologies exist now for improving fuel economy. That was a year-and-
a-half ago.
  But, automakers have instead invested their new technologies in other 
attributes over the past 13 years. Specifically, there has been a 53-
percent increase in horsepower, a 19-percent increase in weight, an 18-
percent increase

[[Page S1821]]

for acceleration and, correspondingly, a minus eight percent decrease 
for fuel economy. The bottom line is that the auto industry has had the 
technological opportunities to do better but chose another road. They 
tell us this is what the consumer wants.
  But maybe that is because, for the most part, consumers haven't been 
presented with viable alternatives. Indeed, a March 2002 poll by the 
Mellman Group shows that nearly three-quarters of voters nationwide 
favor increasing the fuel efficiency of vehicles. Another survey 
conducted since 9/11 by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, Inc., showed 
that 88 percent of likely voters support increasing the fuel efficiency 
standards for cars and trucks.
  We have seen what a positive difference changes in CAFE standards can 
make. The NAS panel experts found that, as a result of CAFE standards 
put into law by Congress in 1975, we have achieved a 75-percent 
increase in fuel economy for cars. Cars went from 15.8 mpg in 1975 to 
27.5 mpg in 1985. And, through CAFE standards, we have seen a 50-
percent increase for light trucks, from 13.7 mpg in 1975 to 20.7 mpg in 
1987. In addition, NAS noted that CAFE helped maintain fuel economy 
levels when market forces might have forced fuel economy lower in the 
passenger fleet.
  I don't want America's SUV manufacturers to be ``the industry that 
time forgot?'', and history clearly shows that the Federal Government 
must play a role in ensuring that consumers have a choice in vehicles 
with high degrees of fuel economy, an appropriate degree of safety and 
a minimal impact on our environment. How can we do anything less? 
Closing the SUV loophole will help us achieve these goals, and it is an 
idea whose time has long since arrived.
  When I think back to the balanced budget debate in the Senate, many 
of us argued that continued deficits would leave the generations to 
come with mountains of debt, and we had an obligation to ensure that 
this did not happen. Today, I say to you that we have a similar 
obligation to take practical steps, to make practical tradeoffs to 
ensure that generations to come won't be left with a mountain of carbon 
dioxide emissions, with an even greater dependency on foreign oil, with 
even higher prices at the pump, and with fewer of our precious natural 
resources.
  I urge my colleagues to take the responsible road and support the 
Feinstein-Snowe CAFE standards incremental increases for SUVs and the 
light truck category as the right direction to take.
                                 ______