| 5/23/2007 8:44:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Memorial Day: Higher temps and higher gas prices
Guest Opinion
by Carl Pope
Memorial Day - the unofficial start of summer, and the summer driving season - is this weekend.
For many American families Memorial Day means a long weekend and plenty of hours in the family car. That trip could be soured by the unavoidable reminder that Memorial Day is when gasoline prices usually begin to head toward their summer peak.
This year we didn't make it to Easter - much less Memorial Day - before prices skyrocketed. Prices have already hit levels higher than in any previous summer. They've broken records, smashing through the positively stratospheric highs set following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Indeed, Consumers Union and the Consumer Federation of America testified in Congress recently that the average American family is now spending $1,000 a year more on gas than they were five years ago.
That's certainly enough to pay for the average family Memorial Day getaway or perhaps enough to prevent them from taking one in the first place.
The bad news is we're one refinery outage, hurricane, or supply disruption away from gas prices most of us don't want to imagine. The good news is we don't have to be locked into painful summers at the pump forever.
With Big Oil having made $200 billion in excess profits from the pockets of American consumers in the past five years and always looking for more, the best way to seek relief from pain at the pump is reduce the amount of fuel you use in the first place.
The single biggest step we can take to save consumer money at the pump, reduce our dangerous dependence on oil, and, incidentally, fight global warming, is to make our cars and trucks go farther on a gallon of fuel.
So far, the auto industry has fought efforts to raise fuel economy standards for cars and trucks. Many in the administration and Congress have resisted, but there are signs momentum is beginning to shift.
In this year's State of the Union address, President George W. Bush promised to raise fuel economy standards 4 percent a year. Similar efforts are being made in Congress. Such an increase would dramatically cut oil consumption and our global warming emissions.
The U.S. House and Senate will each consider measures to boost fuel economy after the Memorial Day recess. Public officials must use this opportunity to take real, concrete action to guarantee a 4-percent-a-year increase in fuel economy.
They should not give in to auto industry demands for loopholes as they have for more than two decades.
On another track, 14 states, representing about 40 percent of the U.S. auto market, have adopted California landmark global warming emissions standards for automobiles.
The Sierra Club and others are protecting the standards from spurious court challenges from the auto industry. Meanwhile, California and the others are still waiting for permission from the Environmental Protection Agency to initiate them. The first hearing in this process just took place and the EPA should act without delay in approving the waiver as soon as possible.
World scientists agree. Global warming is real, here and happening faster than anyone predicted. But scientists also say we can curb global warming and prevent its worst consequences - if we take bold, comprehensive action now, that adds to an 80-percent cut in carbon emissions by 2050. That's a doable 2-percent cut a year for each of the next 40 years.
To reach our goal, to build a cleaner, smarter and safer energy future, to meet and overcome the most urgent challenge facing us, to protect our children and theirs - we must all be part of the solution.
Residents, businesses and government all have a role to play. To cut carbon emissions 2 percent a year for each of the next 40 years means we must start now to make different, better decisions about the energy we use at home, at work, and as a nation.
Carl Pope is executive director of Sierra Club, America's oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization. Column distributed by MinutemanMedia.org.
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