Kerry’s CAFE Standards Killed in Senate
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, March 13–Senator John F. Kerry’s pet project died in the Senate yesterday, after the Massachusetts Democrat’s colleagues rejected his tough vehicle fuel-economy standards in favor of a more auto industry-friendly proposal.
Kerry, who chose to drop his amendment to the energy bill after a less stringent alternative passed by a 62-38 vote, credited “shrewd and well-crafted” advertising with killing the plan. Opposition ads had warned “soccer moms” and farmers that the new regulations would mean the end of their minivans, truck, and SUVs.
“It was the most extraordinary spending on phony advertising I’ve seen since the tobacco debate,” Kerry said.
If the plan Kerry had co-sponsored with Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., had passed, it would have required automobile manufacturers to increase their fleet-wide fuel economy to 35 miles per gallon by 2015, an increase of about 50 percent. Instead, the Senate passed a plan that would direct the Transportation Department to develop new fuel-economy rules but set no specific increase for the automakers to meet.
Senators Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H., voted against the alternative, while Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H. voted for it.
In defending his proposal, Kerry argued that it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and minimize America’s dependence on foreign oil, “sending OPEC the message that we won’t stand for anti-competitive, manipulative price increases.” Senators Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Christopher S. Bond, R-Mo., sponsors of the alternative, replied that it would eliminate auto industry jobs, jeopardize safety and compromise consumer choice.
In comments before the vote, Bond appealed directly to “soccer moms,” evoking the image of a “string of subcompacts and golf carts towing kids to soccer practice.” During debate, he and other Senators referred repeatedly to a poster of a two-seater, bubble-like European subcompact they called the “purple people eater,” warning that Kerry’s plan would convert all cars into “plastic coffins.”
A Virginia mother who challenged Kerry to “come drive a mile in my minivan” said his proposal would be “very bad for the mom business.”
“I can’t fit all six kids in a Yugo; it would look like a clown car,” said Martha Gaudet in a press conference before the debate.
Kerry dismissed these assertions as “extraordinary, ridiculous scare tactics,” promising that “no American will be forced to drive any different vehicle.” Calling the ads “insulting to the intelligence of Americans,” he cited a National Academy of Sciences study last year concluding that significant fuel-efficiency improvements are possible without reductions in car size and weight.
Though Kerry called the Bond-Levin amendment “an artful dodge, a great escape” from true action on CAFE standards, he said yesterday that he still believes the energy bill is “worthwhile” even without his amendment. The bill also contains tax incentives for the purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles, and other environment-enhancing initiatives. Kerry expressed guarded optimism that the Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would choose to tighten fuel-economy standards after its mandated 15-month review of the current rules.
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
