[greenyes] Auto Fuel Efficiency and Strange Bedfellows

["Peter Anderson" <anderson@no.address>]

 washingtonpost.com

An Unlikely Meeting Of the Minds
For Very Different Reasons, Groups Agree on Gas Alternatives
By Greg Schneider
March 31, 2005; Page E01

Environmentalists aren't the only ones applauding the sales stumble of big 
SUVs and pickups in the face of high gas prices.
Groups of conservative Republicans see an opportunity to step up a campaign 
to promote alternative-fuel vehicles and wean the nation from dependence on 
foreign oil. While skeptical about links between autos and global warming, 
the conservatives have concluded that cutting gasoline consumption is a 
matter of national security.

A who's who of right-leaning military hawks -- including former CIA director 
R. James Woolsey and Iraq war advocate Frank J. Gaffney Jr. -- has joined 
with environmental advocates such as the Natural Resources Defense Council 
to lobby Congress to spend $12 billion to cut oil use in half by 2025. The 
alliance highlights how popular sentiment is turning against the no-worries 
gas-guzzling culture of the past decade and how alternative technologies 
such as gas-electric hybrids are finding increasingly widespread support.

"I think there are a number of things converging," said Gary L. Bauer, a 
former Republican presidential candidate and former head of the Family 
Research Council who has signed on to a strange-bedfellows coalition of 
conservatives and environmentalists called Set America Free. "I just think 
reasonable people are more inclined right now to start thinking about ways 
our country's future isn't dependent on . . . oil from a region where there 
are a lot of very bad actors."

The war in Iraq and escalating terrorism in the Middle East have shaken 
Americans' faith in cheap, plentiful gasoline. The average price of a gallon 
of regular gasoline reached $2.153 yesterday, according to the AAA Fuel 
Gauge report, and benchmark crude oil closed at $53.99 per barrel, compared 
with $36.25 a year ago. Last week a survey sponsored by the nonpartisan 
Civil Society Institute in Boston found that two-thirds of Americans feel it 
is "patriotic" to buy a more fuel-efficient vehicle.

At the same time, the success of the Toyota Prius and the Ford Escape Hybrid 
has demonstrated that drivers don't have to sacrifice fun, performance or 
status to achieve better gas mileage. The Civil Society survey of more than 
1,000 people -- evenly divided between men and women -- found that nearly 
two-thirds worry that Japanese and other foreign automakers are pulling 
ahead of their U.S. counterparts in alternative-fuel technology.

Such fears are changing many long-standing positions on the issue of fuel 
economy. While Democrats have rallied against America's oil dependence --  
Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) termed the issue a national emergency during last 
year's presidential campaign -- Republicans have been more likely to 
advocate further exploration for oil reserves than to sound the alarm about 
the need for new technologies.
"...
"...
"...
"...
"...
_________________________
Peter Anderson, President
RECYCLEWORLDS CONSULTING
4513 Vernon Blvd. Suite 15
Madison, WI 53705-4964
Ph: (608) 231-1100
Fax: (608) 233-0011
Cell: (608) 698-1314
eMail: anderson@no.address
web: www.recycleworlds.net

         CONFIDENTIAL
This message, and all attachments thereto,
is covered by the Electronic Communications
Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C., Sections 2510-2521.
This message is CONFIDENTIAL. If you are
not the intended recipient of this message,
then any retention, dissemination, distribution
or copying of this communication is strictly
prohibited. Please notify me if you received
this message in error at anderson@no.address
and then delete it.