http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13620/story.htm
Planet Ark Environmental News:
US drivers in SUV gas-guzzling buying spree

USA: December 7, 2001

NEW YORK - U.S. drivers are buying gasoline at a feverish clip 
despite the nation's recession, due largely to low pump prices and an 
autumn buying rush for gas-guzzling SUVs, analysts said this week.

"Americans are driving more in less-efficient vehicles," automobile 
expert Mike Lucky of John S. Herold Inc. said. "Sales of SUVs and 
pickup trucks have been amazingly strong considering the recession, 
and low pump prices are keeping people on the roads."

Gasoline consumption for November averaged about 8.6 million barrels 
per day, up nearly 3 percent from last year, according to the 
American Petroleum Institute (API), despite a recession.

The robust gasoline demand comes amid a steep drop in retail pump 
prices to two-year lows of $1.12 a gallon and amid a dramatic 
increase in sales of sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks - some 
of the least fuel-efficient automobiles on the market.

Bargain financing deals by big automakers have helped push sales of 
SUVs and light pickup trucks 13.7 percent higher than last year for 
the month of November, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. 
Meanwhile, half of the 20 best-selling automobiles so far this year 
have been trucks or SUVs, including the mammoth GMC Sierra and Dodge 
Ram pickup, according to data reported by automakers.

"The rate of purchase for new fuel inefficient vehicles is far 
outpacing the rate of retirement for older automobiles," said Lucky. 
According to the Federal Highway Administration, the number of 
vehicles on the road grew by 5.2 million between 1999 and 2000.

In October, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that 
Americans' love affair with gas-guzzling SUVs reduced the average 
fuel mileage of all 2001 model year vehicles to 20.4 miles per 
gallon, the lowest in two decades.

The trend could become a curse to the the nation's energy 
infrastructure, which over the past two years struggled desperately 
to overcome regional fuel shortages due to refinery and pipeline 
outages.

"The lowest fuel economy since 1980 can be attributed to the increase 
in light trucks on America's roads," the EPA said in a statement. 
"Light trucks are less fuel efficient."

The current Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, first adopted 
by Congress in 1975 after the Arab oil embargo, require passenger 
cars to average 27.5 miles per gallon and light trucks to average 
20.7 mpg.

At the time, light trucks were allowed to get lower mileage because 
they were used mostly by farmers and small businesses.

If auto manufacturers increased fuel economy by as little as three 
miles per gallon, consumers would save as much as $25 billion a year 
in fuel costs, the EPA said.

That modest increase in fuel efficiency, the agency said, would also 
reduce 140 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year and 
cut the United States' reliance on foreign oil by 1 million barrels 
of oil each day - a boon as heightened tensions in the Mideast raise 
fears of a disruption in crude supply.

Senate Democrats introduced a broad energy bill this week that seeks, 
in part, to boost vehicle fuel efficiency but said that any change 
could not take effect until the 2004 model year is introduced.

The legislation does not set specific fuel mileage requirements for 
vehicles. That language will be added to the bill after the Senate 
Commerce Committee approves a new standard, they said.

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

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