PBS "The Newshour": Congressman George Miller and Fuel Efficiency Standards
In July 2001, Congressman Miller appeared on PBS' Newshour to debate federal fuel efficiency standards with the Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Representative Billy Tauzin (R-LA). See full transcript. See Miller's bill to increase fuel standards.
Highlights from the Newshour, July 30
Paul Portnoy, chairman of the National Academy of Sciences new study on automobile fuel economcy: "I agree with Representative Miller. I think if we take a long enough period of time, then we can see the kind of improvements in fuel economy that he talked about and to have those kinds of improvements without adverse safety consequences... The Academy study was clear that we can get significant improvements in fuel economy without downsizing and down weighting if we do this over a long enough period of time..."I think the members of my committee would probably opt for a somewhat more ambitious program than Congressman Tauzin has talked about... I think there is a middle ground and I think that's what we need to search for."
Representative George Miller: "This is a question of whether or not this Nation, at this point in our history, when 70 percent of the oil that we use in this country, most of which is imported, is going to continue to be wasted in automobiles or whether or not we're going to finally get about as a national policy and interest and commitment to substantially improve those standards, which now the National Academy of Sciences says are clearly doable."
"We simply think that [Chairman Tauzin's] approach is too timid..."
"What I would like to see is that we end up with a program of continuous improvement for mileage standards for now and in the foreseeable future because we know that very often technologies sit on the shelf because it's in no one's interest to incorporate them into the design or the use of the automobile. I think we've got to have a standard that continues to drive that, that continuous improvement, whether it's in design, in engineering, in the weight of the automobile, in the fuel mixtures -- all of those things that we know American ingenuity and technology can bring to bear."
energyandenvironment
global warming
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Posted by BDM-Staff at July 30, 01 03:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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