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ENERGY CONFERENCE COMMITTEE FAILS TO TAKE IMPORTANT
STEP TO REDUCE U.S. DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL
Wyden pushes substantive amendment to increase
automobile fuel efficiency standards
over 5 years, reduce America’s ‘terror tax’
July 19, 2005
Washington, DC – U.S.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the House-Senate Energy
Conference Committee, expressed regret at the committee’s
failure to adopt an amendment he offered today that would increase
automobile industry fuel economy standards by one mile per gallon
each year for five years beginning in 2008. Wyden offered the
amendment to the 2005 energy bill as a concrete step the conference
committee could take to improve the legislation to reduce America’s
dependence on foreign oil and reduce what he has called America’s
‘terror tax,” or the portion of the price per gallon
of gas that is indirectly funneled through foreign governments
to Islamist extremists. Despite an emerging consensus among experts
and policy makers from both ends of the political spectrum about
the need for better fuel standards, the average fuel economy of
cars on America’s roads today has declined to the lowest
levels in 20 years. As of today, the energy bill currently contains
no significant provisions to reduce America’s dependence
on foreign oil.
“Congress should be taking
steps now to improve America’s outdated energy policies
rather than simply maintaining the status quo,” said Wyden.
“Improving fuel economy standards in the transportation
sector is one of the most effective tools for reducing our dependence
on foreign oil, and the conference committee has failed to improve
America’s energy and national security by rejecting this
modest, but important proposal.”
A National Academy of Sciences
report commissioned by Congress in 2001 found that Corporate Average
Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards have reduced U.S. dependence on
foreign oil, improved the nation’s terms of trade and reduced
emissions of carbon dioxide by seven percent since Congress passed
CAFE nearly 30 years ago. According to the report, “gasoline
consumption and crude oil imports would be about 2.8 million barrels
per day greater than it is today” without CAFE’s mandated
increase in fuel economy.
Recent public opinion surveys
have found that the vast majority of Americans want the government
to develop new energy technologies and require the auto industry
to make cars and trucks get better gas mileage. 92 percent of
those surveyed cited America’s dependence on foreign oil
as a “serious problem.”
In the wake of the London transit
bombings, Wyden spoke regarding the “terror tax” Americans
pay for our nation's dependence on foreign oil. Wyden discussed
how funds find their way from American consumers' gasoline purchases
to extremists who wish to attack the U.S. and other democracies.
To read Wyden’s speech, go to http://wyden.senate.gov/media/speeches/2005/07112005_end_terror_tax.html
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