foreign oil imports

New Poll Results
independence patriotism

Most Americans Say Fuel-Efficiency is Patriotic

Here are portions of a news report originally distributed by Reuters.

Most Americans believe it is patriotic to buy a fuel-efficient vehicle to help wean their country off Middle Eastern oil, according to a new poll released on March 17, 2005.

Some 66 percent of participants in the survey said they agreed that driving vehicles that require less fuel to run was patriotic, since it could help reduce the US dependency on Mideast crude.

The survey, conducted for the nonpartisan Civil Society Institute think tank, also showed that 57 percent of self-described conservatives considered the purchase of a fuel-efficient vehicle an act of patriotism.

Even 67 percent of NASCAR racing fans concurred that fuel-efficiency and patriotism go hand in hand, the poll said. Based on telephone interviews with adults in private US households, the poll was conducted on Feb. 10-13. Its margin for error was three percentage points.

The poll also showed that an overwhelming 89 percent of Americans agreed on the importance of government action to reach a 40 mile per gallon fuel efficiency level for US vehicles, in order to cut greenhouse pollution as well as dependency on Mideast oil. In response to rising US gasoline prices, 50 percent of those surveyed said they had already purchased or were considering buying a more fuel-efficient car.

The US rules that govern fuel efficiency, known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, were first imposed in 1975 after the Arab oil embargo. Despite the World Trade Center bombings in 2001, politicians have let the standards remain at 27.5 mpg for cars -- no improvement since back in 1990 -- and at 20.7 for trucks since 1996.

In its annual fuel economy report last year, the Environmental Protection Agency said that in the 2004 model year, light duty vehicles sold in the United States were estimated to average 20.8 mpg. That was no improvement over the last eight years, and was even 6 percent below a 1987-1988 peak of 22.1 mpg, the EPA said.

Also see:

  • Robert Redford: Patriotism Means Ending U.S. Dependence on Foreign Oil
     http://www.progress.org/energy13.htm

  • Patriotic Americans, But Not Politicians, Turn Serious About Energy Policy
    http://www.progress.org/2003/energy15.htm

  • Warren Faulk's essay on energy independence, which originally appeared at The Progress Report over a year before the 9/11 disaster
    http://www.progress.org/archive/faulk01.htm
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