Sending a February Valentine to the auto industry, President Bush has extended for another four years a policy that enables carmakers to build less fuel-efficient vehicles while pretending to conserve oil. The auto manufacturers have been more than happy to exploit the loophole, much as they skirt CAFE standards (requiring a minimum number of miles per gallon) by pretending that gas-guzzling SUVs and minivans are light trucks.
In effect since the late 1980s, the rule permits auto companies to manufacture cars that can run on either gasoline or ethanol. To burn ethanol, cars must be fitted with corrosion-resistant fuel lines and tanks, modified fuel injectors, special fuel sensors, and other features.[1]
The cost of the modifications per vehicle comes to about $300, an expense paid by the auto companies, not consumers.[2] GM, Ford, and the other manufacturers are handsomely rewarded, however. By manufacturing these "dual-fueled vehicles" they get credits toward meeting CAFE standards for their entire fleet. In effect, the credits enable them reduce fuel economy for the millions of other cars they sell.
If the policy worked as intended, this might possibly be a net plus for the environment, since the policy was designed to encourage the use of ethanol over oil (experts are divided on the relative merits of ethanol). But the dual-fueled vehicles, while capable of running on ethanol, rarely do. Less than one percent of the fuel burned by the three million dual-fueled vehicles on the road is ethanol.[3]
In most places, running a car on ethanol is simply impractical. There are only 180 ethanol refueling stations in the entire country, and 24 states have no refueling stations at all.[4] The policy has become merely a device enabling the automakers to dodge laws designed to require them to build cars that get better mileage.
The Bush Administration's extension of the dual fuel loophole, according to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), means the U.S. will consume an extra 40-110 million barrels of oil from 2005-2008.[5]
"It's like putting an extra half-million new cars on the road each year," said Therese Langer, director of ACEEE's Transportation Program. "This move helps to ensure that our reliance on oil imports will continue to rise."
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SOURCES:
[1] Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, 2003 E85 Purchasing Guide.
[2] Ford representative cited in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, July 7, 2000.
[3] ACEEE press release, February 18, 2004.
[4] "Reforming Dual-Fueled Vehicle CAFE Credits," Therese Langer, ACEEE, October 2003.
[5] ACEEE press release, op.cit.
