Editorial: Conservation vs. drilling

Monday, Dec. 26, 2005 | 7:52 a.m.

In demanding congressional approval of a massive drilling operation in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Bush administration is saying the country is so desperate for oil that widespread environmental damage to one of the country's most pristine areas is more than justified.

Yet President Bush could be making another demand, one that would go a long way toward solving our oil crisis while improving the environment at the same time. He could be demanding that Congress pass legislation to increase the fuel efficiency standards for the nation's automobiles, particularly for cars, SUVs and pickup trucks.

Instead, Bush allowed Vice President Dick Cheney to meet secretly with executives of big corporations and craft a national energy policy giving them plenty of tax breaks but giving no relief to consumers through vehicles that get better gas mileage.

The U.S. Public Interest Research Group this month completed a study assessing how Bush's "more oil is the answer" philosophy has cost consumers and the environment.

If Bush, during his first year in office, had pushed through legislation directing that gas mileage for cars and SUVs increase to 40 miles per gallon by 2012, improvements by now would be saving individual consumers $500 a year at the pumps. Also, the country by now would be saving 500,000 barrels of oil a day and would be cutting its emissions of carbon dioxide (a gas contributing to global warming) by 34.2 million tons a year, the USPIRG says.

It is not a lack of technology that is preventing cars from being more efficient -- it is a lack of will on the part of the current administration. There are efforts under way in both the House and the Senate to increase the mileage of new cars. We hope the efforts will succeed, as it is the American people who would benefit, rather than Bush, Cheney and their sponsors in the corporate world.