---

'Vote To Kill Damaging Transportation CAFE Rider'

19 May 2000

'Vote To Kill Damaging Transportation CAFE Rider'

        Statement By Jennifer Morgan Director, Climate Change Campaign
                             World Wildlife Fund

    WASHINGTON, May 19 "Today's Transportation funding bill
includes a rider that would continue to tie the hands of the Administration
and hold back technology that would make cars and trucks cleaner and more
efficient. WWF calls on Congress to vote for the Olver-George Miller 'Motion
to Strike' to clean up the bill and America's cars.
    "For five years Congress has stalled American technology with the CAFE
rider-but they can't stop the world. Many countries are moving forward in
producing highly fuel-efficient automobiles as part of national plans to
combat global warming. The U.S. has always been on the cutting edge of
technology, but this rider will keep us from joining the world to meet higher
standards.
    "World Wildlife Fund sees a vote for this anti-CAFE rider as a vote
against the environment and a vote against technological progress. We urge
members of the House to stand up for the environment and strike down the CAFE
rider.
    "Americans have shown time and again that they care about the future of
the world's wildlife and wild spaces. Global warming threatens habitats around
the world, and this rider would prevent the U.S. from technological progress
and protecting the environment that Americans care about."

    BACKGROUND
    CAFE, or Corporate Average Fuel Economy, standards are the minimum
efficiency requirement for cars and light trucks. The CAFE standards are among
our nation's most successful environmental laws-doubling the efficiency of
cars since enacted in 1975.
    Raising the miles-per-gallon standard for light trucks alone would slash
oil consumption by 1 million barrels per day and reduce carbon dioxide
emissions by 240 million tons per year. While the current standards for autos
have stagnated for nearly a decade at 27.5 miles per gallon, the standards for
heavily polluting sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and other light trucks lag
behind at 20.7 miles per gallon-a large loophole in the CAFE law.
    Increasing CAFE standards will mean savings for U.S. citizens at the gas
pumps and reduction of U.S. dependence on foreign oil. However, today's rider
bars the Administration from even studying this problem. Stripping the rider
is the first step in creating the more efficient cars of the future.