http://www.gristmagazine.com/muck/muck040204.asp?source=daily
Sticker Shocking
The EPA has been misoverestimating the fuel economy of cars sold in
the U.S., says enviro group
by Amanda Griscom
02 Apr 2004
A whole lot of exaggerating going on.
If you think the fuel economy of U.S. vehicles is dismal, well,
you're right. Perhaps more right than you know.
Official U.S. EPA statistics ascribe a pathetic average of 20.8 miles
per gallon to the 2003 car fleet, about 6 percent lower than 15 years
ago. The fleet averaged 22.1 mpg in 1987, before Americans got hooked
on gas-guzzling SUVs.
But according to the enviro group Bluewater Network, the actual fuel
economy of America's cars and light trucks is as much as 20 percent
lower than the EPA claims.
The Bush administration last week agreed to look into the issue, as a
belated response to a petition filed in June 2002 by the group -- but
cynics can be forgiven for questioning just how hard they'll look.
Here's the problem: The EPA's gas-mileage tests of new vehicle models
-- conducted in labs rather than on roads -- are based on methods and
criteria developed 20 years ago and long since obsolete, according to
Bluewater Executive Director Russell Long. The result, he says, is
that the EPA's estimates of fuel economy are significantly more
optimistic than what most drivers actually experience in the real
world.
"The traffic patterns today are totally different than they were two
decades ago, and this has serious impacts on a car's fuel economy,"
Long says. For example, ubiquitous urban congestion has resulted in
more idling and start-and-stop driving, and average highway driving
speeds have increased -- all leading to higher fuel consumption. (Get
the nitty-gritty on problems with the current testing model in the
2002 Bluewater report "Fuel Economy Falsehoods" [PDF].) Nonetheless,
the EPA's misoverestimated fuel-economy numbers appear on labels
affixed to every new car on the sales lot.
"We have a double standard in this country: It's illegal for
corporations to mislead the public about their products. But here the
EPA is getting away with what you might call highway robbery -- car
owners are paying $200 to $300 more every year for gas than the
labels indicate they would," said Long.
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The EPA last week opened up a 120-day
public-comment period on Bluewater's request that mileage testing
procedures be revamped. (You can submit a comment on the matter
yourself if you feel so inclined.) Though it could take months more
for the agency to decide what action (if any) to take, Bluewater has
applauded this first step.
If the national corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) rules are to be
overhauled -- as called for by a growing chorus of enviros and
politicians, including Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry
-- it only makes sense that we first consider serious flaws in the
program's underlying infrastructure.
"Clear labeling of fuel efficiency is a prerequisite for everything
else," says Long. "It will steer motorists toward cleaner cars and
save them money, not to mention give a clearer picture of the need to
reduce our global warming pollution and dependence on foreign oil."
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