WASHINGTON, March 13 (UPI) -- The Senate on Wednesday accepted an amendment that effectively strips increased fuel efficiency requirements for light trucks and automobiles from a wide-ranging energy policy bill. Opponents of the amendment -- which passed 62-38 -- wanted to increase the current standards by as much as 50 percent to 36 miles per gallon.
The vote was a defeat for Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz., who wanted to increase the current standards for automobiles to 36 mpg by 2015 and, for the first time classify sport utility vehicles as automobiles and hold them to the same standard. The senators had introduced their proposal as a replacement for the original bill language -- drafted by Kerry -- that would have set the standard at 35 mpg, but offered less flexibility for industry in attaining it.
The move was defeated by an amendment offered by Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Christopher Bond, R-Mo., which would give the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration two years to set a new standard, but does not mandate any change to the level. Several senators spoke in support of this approach because, they said, the new standards would force automakers to offer lighter, more dangerous cars and virtually eliminate the popular SUV from production.
Speaking on behalf of his amendment, Bond described the opinion of the automobile manufacturing industry on the need to avoid a mandatory increase in standards.
"I'd prefer to listen to the opinions of those people who make and sell cars," he said, shortly before the vote. "They say the (Kerry-McCain) amendment would be a job killer and a safety threat to our families and friends."
Several senators rose to support this stance with pictures of tiny, fuel efficient cars used in Europe and claimed that these would replace the current SUVs and other automobiles. And the automotive industry ran advertising that implied pickup trucks, SUVs and full-size cars would become illegal if the standards were implemented. Supporters of the new standards denied the charges.
Kerry also denied that the measure would make cars any more dangerous, and pointed to the lack of support that Levin-Bond enjoyed from safety groups.
"The only people who support the automotive industry on this issue, by-and-large, are the people who work there," Kerry said. "Not anyone from the safety organizations and not any of the environmental groups."
McCain, speaking in anger after the vote about the campaign to claim that cars would be more dangerous as a result, said he had never seen such distortion of the facts in a Senate debate.
"Isn't it the automobile industry that has resisted every safety change ever proposed in the last 40 years," McCain said of the industry protests.
The Senate is debating a broad energy bill that will also address the reliability of the electricity grid, possibility by codifying a voluntary regional electric reliability council into a mandatory enforcement body, and is expected to include a showdown between Democrats and Republicans over whether to allow for oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The Bush administration and many Republicans strongly favor the exploration as a way to reduce foreign dependence on oil, while Democrats have threatened a filibuster because of environmental concerns.
Supporters of the tougher fuel standards pointed out that one way to reduce such oil dependence would be to increase the standards to reduce oil consumption.
