A Real Campaign Alternative for an Independent Energy Future

SET AMERICA FREE
Cut dependence on foreign oil. Secure America.

If we want a real Progressive campaign alternative for Energy Independence, we need more than a glitzy media campaign focused narrowly on still grossly inefficient 20 mpg flex-fuel vehicles, even if such a campaign is sponsored by Robert Redford.

(Dear Robert, have you checked the MPG ratings for flex-fuel vehicles currently on the market? They seem to average a terrible 20 mpg, while a 1996 GEO Metro was able to achieve 45 mpg 10 years ago! Today, if you were looking to buy something equivalent to the GEO Metro, you would not be able to find it without switching to a much more expensive Toyota or Honda hybrid. Why is this the case, you might well ask? While Toyota and Honda have been moving ahead in developing their hybrid cars that can NOW already deliver from 50 to 60 mpg, our US car manufacturers could not even maintain in the 21st century the few models like the GEO/Chevy Metro that delivered more than 40 mpg. This illustrates that any emphasis on flex fuel without a coinciding demand that American car manufacturers get with it and manufacture dramatically more fuel efficient vehicles, will dramatically fail to meet our environmental, transportation, and security needs.)

Because of this, we desperately need many more campaigns like the DetroitProject campaign launched by Americans for Fuel Efficient Cars and the Apollo Alliance back in 2003.

We need campaigns based on strategies like the Apollo Alliance's "Ten Point Plan for Good Jobs and Energy Independence," which lists as its Number One goal:

1. Promote Advanced Technology & Hybrid Cars: Begin today to provide incentives for converting domestic assembly lines to manufacture highly efficient cars, transitioning the fleet to American made advanced technology vehicles, increasing consumer choice and strengthening the US auto industry.

And If we want a real Progressive campaign alternative for Energy Independence, we need to be able to develop a specific policy alternative and strategy at least as good as that developed by the so-called "Set America Free Coalition," which has been able to sponsor significant legislative proposals in Congress.

The Democratic Party has this week proposed its CleanEdge Act 2006, as part of its Energy Independence 2020 campaign, whic was initiated last Fall. This CleanEdge Act does manage to note that its aim is to "accelerate and extend incentives to purchase and manufacture vehicles that rely on advanced fuel efficiency technologies." But why is this not the first and primary focus of this legislation, since placing an emphasis on flex-fuel cars that continue to yield only 20 mpg will do little to decrease our energy needs or dependence on oil. Only in combination with much more efficient use of fuel, with technologies that were already available ten years ago, will we be able to dramatically reduce the environmental, political, and economic burden of our reliance on fossil fuels.

As noted in the recent Set America Free Coalition’s Blueprint for Energy security:

If by 2025, all cars on the road are hybrids and half are plug-in hybrid vehicles, U.S. oil imports would drop by 8 million barrels per day (mbd). Today, the United States imports 10 mbd and it is projected to import almost 20 mbd by 2025. If all of these cars were also flexible fuel vehicles, U.S. oil imports would drop by as much as 12 mbd.

Here are some of the details on the currently proposed legislation, based on the Set America Free Blueprint--

Landmark Vehicle and Fuel Choices Legislation: Setting America Free

The bipartisan Senate bill (S. 2025) sponsored by Senators Bayh (D-IN), Brownback (R-KS), Coleman (R-MN), Graham (R-SC), Lieberman (D-CT), Lugar (R-IN), Obama (D-IL) and Salazar (D-CO) and the companion bipartisan House bill (H.R. 4409) sponsored by Vice Chair of the Republican Leadership Conference Rep. Kingston (R-GA), Rep. Saxton (R-NJ), and Rep. Engel (D-NY) and 22 other cosponsors aim to put the nation on the path to independence from foreign oil.

The bills blaze this trail by requiring a real plan to boost efficient use of oil in our transportation sector, offer consumers non-petroleum fuel choices, and encourage the use of fuels produced from domestic resources. The bills are based on the Set America Free Coalition’s Blueprint for Energy security.

Focus on 21st Century Vehicles – Renew Detroit

While the plan addresses all sectors of the economy, transportation is responsible for 70 percent of our oil consumption and it is currently 97% reliant on oil. The legislation creates some new authorities and research programs to help achieve the oil savings from our cars, trucks and buses, including:

· Providing a tax credit, loan guarantees, and grants to auto manufacturers and suppliers who decide to retool factories to build more efficient vehicles, including especially hybrids and advanced diesels, and associated components;
· Removing the cap on the number of eligible consumer tax credits for advanced vehicles;
· Closing the gas guzzler tax loophole that encourages businesses to purchase very large SUVs but maintaining an exemption for farm vehicles;
· Establishing new requirements for oil savings and advanced vehicle usage for federal fleets and new incentives for private fleets that purchase more efficient vehicles; and
· Funding for research, development and deployment to speed commercialization of both near-term vehicle technologies, such as plug-in hybrids, and advanced vehicles technologies, such as light-weight materials.

Both the proposed Senate and House bills include four major components:

· An national oil savings requirement starting at 2.5 million barrels of oil per day within ten years and increasing over time, achieved through a menu of existing and new authorities and incentives;
· Federal manufacturer retooling incentives for production of efficient vehicles and authority to set efficiency standards for tires and heavy duty trucks;
· Programs that increase fuel choice in the transportation sector; and
· A national energy security media campaign to educate the public about oil dependence.