Snowe announces SUV legislation

By Deirdre Fulton

WASHINGTON — In an attempt to reduce national dependence on foreign oil, improve the environment and aid consumers plagued by rising gasoline costs, Sens. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., vowed Thursday to fight to close the "SUV loophole" and increase fuel efficiency.

Reintroducing legislation Snowe described as a "practical and attainable goal to address a national emergency," the senators held a Capitol Hill press conference to outline their proposal.

By requiring light trucks and sport utility vehicles to adhere to the same tougher fuel standards — laid out in the 1975 Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards — as passenger cars, the legislation would save 1 million barrels of oil every day, reduce oil imports by 10 percent and prevent damaging emissions into the atmosphere, Feinstein said.

Snowe and Feinstein introduced the same legislation last year, but deferred to an even more ambitious proposal offered by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and John Kerry, D-Mass. That bill failed to win approval, but Feinstein said she was optimistic about this year's attempt.

"I think now there's much more concentration — there are television spots on it, there are articles done on it all the time, there are people becoming much more aware," she said. "I think there may also be a feeling of guilt over the Congress for not moving when they know the science and technology are there."

The changes could be particularly beneficial for Maine, said Snowe press secretary Dave Lackey.

"Maine generates very little in emissions but we suffer disproportionately because pollution is transported by the jet stream to our state. That has an impact in a variety of ways — from CO2 and ozone to mercury in our lakes. Cleaner emissions result in better air quality," he said, adding that Maine residents would also benefit from lower gasoline prices.

When CAFE standards were first designed, light trucks were much less common and were given a less stringent fuel efficiency standard, creating the loophole that benefits SUVs and similar vehicles that make up 50 percent of today's road traffic. The proposed legislation would require these vehicles to increase their gasoline mileage per gallon gradually over the next eight years.

Snowe pointed to unstable oil sources like Venezuela and Iraq in asserting that the United States needs to reduce its dependency on foreign oil. Both senators stressed the negative economic impact of rising costs at the pumps.

"Not only do we have a national security issue when it comes to energy dependency from abroad -- we're talking about an environmental situation and we're also talking about stability of prices," Snowe said.

According to projected increases, the United States could depend on foreign sources for 70 percent of its oil by 2025, the senators said.

"If that isn't an emergency situation, I don't know what is. I don't know what has to happen to inject a sense of urgency," Snowe said.

The Bush administration announced its own fuel efficiency plan last December, proposing to increase CAFE standards for SUVs and light trucks to 22.2 miles per gallon by 2007. Snowe and Feinstein said they would pick up where the Bush effort left off. By increasing standards by approximately 1.3 miles per gallon per year after 2007 under the Snowe-Feinstein plan, SUVs would have to average 27.5 miles per gallon by 2011.

Brownie Carson, executive director of Maine's Natural Resources Council, said he appreciated the extra effort by Snowe and Sen. Susan M. Collins, a co-sponsor of the bill.

"Maine's two senators really understand the importance of a different kind of energy policy than has been proposed by the administration," Carson said, referring to the Bush initiative.

U.S. automobile manufacturers have to make the effort to experiment with new technology, Carson said, something Snowe and Feinstein say is possible.

"This legislation is carefully crafted, based on good science, and it contains increases which are technologically feasible," Feinstein said. "We have the technology to do this, we don't have the will."

Citing a 2001 National Academy of Sciences study, the senators emphasized that U.S. auto manufacturers could use existing technology to make new models of SUVs, minivans and light trucks more fuel-efficient.

Published in The Kennebec Journal and The Morning Sentinel, in Maine.