"Drill" in Detroit to Bring Down Gas Prices!

We need a real solution to high gas prices. Cars that go farther on a gallon of gas will help us reduce our oil addiction and protect consumers from high gas prices. Instead of setting aggressive new mileage standards, the Bush administration and its allies are calling for more oil drilling off our precious beaches and wilderness areas – this will benefit Big Oil not consumers.

The fact is that Bush's Department of Transportation (DOT) is undermining the new fuel economy standards Congress passed in 2007. The DOT unrealistically assumes a gallon of gas will cost around $2.50 through 2020 and that hybrid vehicles won't even exist until 2014. Because the agency balances the cost of new fuel economy technology against the gas savings the new technology provides, the administration uses these outrageous assumptions to reduce the automakers' obligation to put existing technologies to work so that consumers will have more fuel-efficient vehicles to choose from.

According to the Administration's own analysis, if DOT simply used a more accurate gas price, more of today's fuel saving technologies could be put to work faster, saving consumers enough fuel to equal about a $1 per gallon discount at the pump. We need real solutions like this – not policies that line the pockets of big oil and increase our addiction to oil. Even the Administration's Energy Information Agency concludes that new drilling will have a minuscule impact on oil prices and even then, not for a decade or more.

Congress must now get personally involved in saving the historic fuel economy standards they created in 2007. Please tell your members of Congress to save fuel economy from Administration tampering in order to truly address America's pain at the pump.

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

We are suffering from high gas prices and we need your help. Instead of debating faulty strategies like domestic oil drilling - which will take decades to develop and result in an insignificant drop in gas prices - we need to focus on effective policies like increased fuel economy.

Congress showed tremendous foresight last year by increasing fuel economy standards to a minimum of 35 miles-per-gallon by 2020. Better fuel economy offers the best solution to high gas prices, oil addiction and reducing global warming pollution. Tragically, the Bush administration is undermining your intent by limiting the potential of new fuel economy standards.

Bush's Department of Transportation (DOT) is unrealistically assuming that gas will cost around $2.50 through 2020 and that hybrid vehicles won't even exist until 2014. By using outrageously low gas price estimates in its cost-benefit analysis, NHTSA undercuts how much consumers will save with added fuel economy technology. Gas costs nowhere near $2.50 today, and it's hard to imagine it will through 2020. DOT's own analysis shows that more accurate gas prices mean consumers will benefit from faster deployment of today's fuel-efficient technologies.

To save Congress' historic accomplishment, I ask you weigh in directly with the DOT and demand that they correct all of the faulty assumptions that will keep more fuel-efficient options away from U.S. drivers. New oil drilling only helps the oil companies, but fuel economy standards will mean the kind of savings at the pump people like me need. Please speak out and demand that the Bush Administration fixes its "mistakes" so we will have the most fuel efficient cars and trucks possible.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
August 17, 2008