It’s time to put some pressure on your Representatives!
The following appeared today on the National Environmental Trust Website. As consumers, it’s time for us to step up and demand that our representatives in Washington step forward and address the current gasoline crisis in our country.
I strongly recommend that you read the following information and then follow the link to send your letter directly to your representative.
Posted on NET website: “Last month the Senate passed groundbreaking legislation to increase fuel efficiency standards for the first time in nearly 30 years. Now the momentum has shifted to the House of Representatives where a similar vote is expected shortly.
It’s time to urge House members to follow the Senate’s lead and increase fuel efficiency standards that meet or exceed the mileage targets of the Senate bill.
The bipartisan Senate legislation set a target of raising fuel efficiency to a fleet-wide average of 35 miles per gallon by model year 2020 for cars and lights trucks (SUVs). A proposal by Representatives Ed Markey and Todd Plats seeks similar targets that would help consumers save money at the pump and reduce our country’s dependence on foreign oil.
Public support for increasing fuel efficiency standards is stronger than it has been in decades, due to historically high gas prices, our nation’s increased dependence on foreign oil, and rising concern over global warming.
A broad, bipartisan majority in the Senate voted in June to raise fleet-wide efficiency to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. Now the House of Representatives must show the same kind of leadership by meeting or exceeding the Senate bill.
It has been over 30 years since Congress increased fuel efficiency standards. In addition to a bipartisan majority in the Senate, President George W. Bush and leading national security experts have both called for a 4% annual increase in vehicle efficiency, a level the National Academy of Sciences has found to be technologically feasible and cost-effective.
Reps. Ed Markey and Todd Platts have introduced legislation that locks in that increase over the next decade, reducing oil use by 1.6 million barrels per day and saving drivers $37 billion per year in the year 2020.
Unfortunately, a new industry-backed proposal introduced by Reps. Baron Hill and Lee Terry (H.R. 2927) would prevent this progress. The Hill-Terry proposal results in an annual increase of only 1.8%.
The bill would also, for the first time, place a cap on efficiency, prohibiting standards above 35 miles-per-gallon in 2022. In comparison to the Senate bill, the Hill-Terry proposal would waste over half a million more barrels of oil per day and cost drivers $14 billion more per year in the year 2020.”
To let your representatives know that you want them to block the Hill-Terry proposal, click here.
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