[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 20226-20227]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         ARBITRARY FUEL STANDARDS COST JOBS--DON'T SAVE ENERGY

  (Mrs. MILLER of Michigan asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. Madam Speaker, 30 years ago, Congress 
established CAFE standards to lower our dependence on foreign oil. And 
the cost? Hundreds of billions of dollars to comply with the 
regulation, hundreds of thousands of auto jobs lost, and dependence on 
foreign oil has gone up over 100 percent.
  CAFE has not worked. It's an antiquated model, and we should be 
pursuing new technologies instead. But Democratic leaders are pushing 
even more stringent CAFE. Democrats are telling auto companies to 
produce more hybrids and other unprofitable vehicles to comply with new 
regulations.
  A recent JD Power survey shows consumer demand is dropping for 
hybrids, forcing costly incentives to move these

[[Page 20227]]

expensive vehicles. Even Honda is discontinuing its Accord hybrid 
because of poor sales.
  If we worked with the domestic auto industry to develop leap-ahead 
technologies and make them affordable for all consumers instead of 
overregulating, we could achieve breakthroughs to reach our goals and 
to protect American jobs, but instead, the Democratic leadership has 
made a conscious decision to bankrupt Michigan.

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