Commentary: Smart fuel rules are needed in the U.S.

Everyone agrees it's time to raise the bar to promote fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse emissions.

Now the important question is: What's the best way to get cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars on the road, while preserving good-paying automotive manufacturing jobs?

Here are some of the key points that concern our members:

• We need a comprehensive solution. Automobiles account for just 16 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Legislation that focuses on autos alone and leaves out the rest of the economy will fail. We need an economy-wide solution, like the carbon cap-and-trade proposal being developed by House Energy and Commerce Chair John Dingell. It would require all industries – including Big Oil, utility companies and all manufacturers – to take action to reduce greenhouse gases, or to trade for carbon permits from more energy-efficient companies or industries.
• We're making progress. United Auto Workers members right now build many fuel-efficient vehicles, including hybrids like the Ford Escape, the Saturn Vue and the Chevy Silverado, and clean diesel vehicles like the Jeep Liberty. We should build on this progress – not derail it with extreme proposals.
• We can't impose unbearable costs on our domestic auto industry.

Some current proposals in Congress would hit the industry from both ends, forcing Chrysler, Ford and General Motors to curtail production of larger vehicles while encouraging them to move small car production overseas.

Our members would get caught in the middle, with tens of thousands of jobs and the pension and health benefits of retired workers at risk.

Fortunately, there's no need to make such a drastic mistake.

U.S. Representatives Lee Terry (R-Nebraska) and Baron Hill (D-Indiana) have offered a sensible, bipartisan alternative that requires a substantial boost in fuel economy standards.

Their plan will raise Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards by 28 to 40 percent, requiring the total fleet of passenger cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. to achieve an average fuel economy level between 32 and 35 miles per gallon by 2022.

It's a tough new standard, but it's one that both domestic and foreign companies can achieve.

By contrast, Massachusetts Democratic Representative Edward Markey's extreme CAFE proposal would impose huge costs on domestic manufacturers, but a far lower burden on foreign-based companies, which have a different vehicle mix and would not face the same kind of retooling costs.

Energy policy should not be separated from our nation's overall economic goals. A dangerous plan which threatens U.S. jobs and U.S. companies doesn't make sense in the long run.

Also, the bill introduced by Representatives Terry and Hill would continue the longstanding distinction in the CAFE program between domestic and foreign passenger car fleets, which protects small car production and jobs in the U.S.

The CAFE measure recently approved by the Senate would repeal this domestic-foreign fleet distinction.

As a result, manufacturers would no longer need to keep small car production here to balance production of larger, less fuel-efficient vehicles. The inevitable result would be the offshoring of small-car production.

This has no relationship to making fuel economy standards more or less stringent. Sending small car production to China or Mexico won't save a single drop of oil – but it will cost the jobs of thousands of workers in the auto and parts industries.

UAW members who build the Toyota Corolla in California, the Chevy Cobalt in Ohio, the Dodge Caliber in Illinois and the Ford Focus in Michigan are on the cutting edge of America's effort to improve fuel economy.

Our public policy should support these workers and workers throughout our industry who are working hard to deliver quality, fuel-efficient vehicles to American consumers.

The U.S. has already lost hundreds of thousands of good-paying manufacturing jobs due to failed policies on health care, trade and other issues.

It would be a sad mistake to add a failed energy policy to this list, instead of taking this opportunity to make real progress on jobs and the environment.

Ron Gettelfinger is president of the UAW. This article appeared on July 6, 2007, in the Detroit News’ Labor Voices. For more information about the UAW, visit www.uaw.org.