Consumers Demand Congress Raise Fuel Efficiency Standards

As Oil Prices and Oil Company Profits Soar, Consumers Demand Congress Raise Fuel Efficiency Standards

Advocates Call On Congress to Make Cars Go Further on Tank of Gas

LITTLE ROCK, AR – As the price of oil skyrockets over $90 per barrel and oil companies release this quarter’s earnings, Arkansas consumers are turning to Congress for help at the pump.

“Americans are already struggling to meet their bills and skyrocketing gas prices are not helping,” said Phyllis Cuttino of the Pew Campaign for Fuel Efficiency. “Sadly, it could get worse still. Oil analysts predict that the rising cost of crude oil means that the oil companies will soon pass that cost on to consumers at the pump. Congress needs to help families save money—and reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil—by raising fuel efficiency standards for new cars and light trucks.”

Crude oil prices have jumped 35% since August with oil prices reaching as high as $96 per barrel yesterday; this is now beginning to trickle down to consumers in the form of higher gas prices. The Energy Information Agency reports that in Arkansas and the rest of the Gulf Coast, customers spent an average of $2.78 per gallon over the past quarter.

At the same time that oil is reaching record prices on an almost daily basis, oil companies are reporting their third quarter profits which, while down compared to last quarter, are still extremely high. Earlier today, ExxonMobil reported a profit of over $9.4 billion, which is 2.35 times what the Arkansas state government generates in a year ($4 billion).

All of this is occurring as Congress works to pass an energy bill that includes a bipartisan compromise to raise fuel efficiency standards for the first time in thirty years, to 35 mpg by 2020. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, this would result in $25 billion in net consumer savings and reduce consumption by 1.2 million barrels per day—more than twice the amount imported daily from Iraq. The Consumer Federation of America reported that the average family would save nearly $700 a year with a 35 mpg car.

“Increasing fuel economy standards is the most effective and efficient way that we can reduce our dependence on oil and provide consumers with much needed relief at the pump,” said Don Richardson, Director of the Arkansas Climate Awareness Project. “When Americans see oil prices reach record highs it’s fair for them to ask Congress to step up and find ways to help consumers.”

The National Petroleum Council, headed by former Exxon CEO Lee Raymond, recommends that fuel economy standards be improved by the maximum rate possible. The National Academy of Sciences reported in 2002 that technology already exists to increase fleet wide fuel economy to 37 mpg without changing the size, weight, or power of vehicles on the road today.

“We have the innovation and technology to achieve a real fuel efficiency increase now,” said Richardson. “We only need the political will to make it happen.”