First hearing on 54.5 mpg proposal reveals widespread support
They came from as close as the General Motors headquarters across the street and as far away as Santa Fe, New Mexico.
They represented groups as diverse as automakers and the military, steel manufacturers and religious organizations.
And nearly all of the 90 or so people who testified on a proposal to raise the nation's fuel economy standard to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 offered support for the plan before a joint government panel in downtown Detroit.
Noting that the Obama administration's proposal had won the diverse support of auto industry insiders, labor unions, consumer watchdogs and environmental groups, Congressman John Dingell said, "this is an event that ranks with the loaves and fishes."
Tuesday's hearing, held by the Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, was the first of three that will give members of the public opportunity to comment on the joint-proposed Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules. Further hearings are set for Thursday in Philadelphia and Tuesday, January 24, in San Francisco.
...
And if the CAFE proposal brought together groups more disparate than auto industry insiders and environmentalists, it was pacifists and Marines nodding in agreement.
Alex Cornell Du Houx, a Marine and Iraq War veteran, said the Department of Defense was the nation's single-largest purchaser of gasoline and is attempting to reduce carbon emissions by 20 percent within the next eight years. The Air Force, he said, will use as much as 50 percent biofuels by 2016.
"This is the single best step we can take right now to curb our dangerous addiction to oil," said Du Houx. "This will have a tremendous impact, and make us less vulnerable to unfriendly and unstable regimes.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Truman National Security Project or Educational Institute.
