Charles Hurley, Obama's NHTSA nominee, has CAFE questions to answer
The nomination of a new NHTSA administrator might seem like an event that would elicit little controversy, but when President Obama picked Chuck Hurley to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the rumbles began. In the White House announcement, Hurley's work with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (he was CEO since 2005) and automobile safetly was highlighted. Sounds good, right? Sure, if you ignore another aspect of Hurley's past, which is exactly what The Better World Group, which represents various environmental groups, does not want to happen.
BWG's president, Wendy James, told Green Car Advisor that Hurley has a history of opposing higher CAFE standards. Should he be confirmed, Hurley would then be a position to influence CAFE, since both the EPA and NHTSA contribute to the standard. Of course, the current reality is that CAFE is scheduled to climb to 27.3 mpg for 2011 model year vehicles on its way to 35 mpg by 2020, and we're not sure if one administrator can change that. We'll have to keep an eye on Hurley to see if he's still against CAFE in any way.
[Source: Green Car Advisor, Consumer Reports, New York Times]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim 11:54AM (4/15/2009)
Since it's tax day, Did Obama find a nominee that actually paid his income taxes?
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Carney 12:29PM (4/15/2009)
It would be kind to call CAFE irrelevant but it is also a threat to the economy, a menace to driver and passenger safety, and a huge distraction from efforts to break free of oil.
The prior round of CAFE did increase average MPGs from 13 to 20 between 1976 and 1990. However, fuel use did NOT go down or even freeze - it went UP from 89 to 103 billion gallons a year in that timeframe. Conservation schemes are more than made up for by economic and population growth - they are simply a strategy for failure.
And 13 to 20 was the easy obvious stuff - from now on it's all pain: pricey hybrids, tiny cramped cars (think "bargain" airline) and/or flimsy dangerous construction (more deaths on the road). And people don't WANT this except in short-term dire emergencies, so you have to force automakers to try to sell these turkeys to a sullen unwilling populace keeping their wallets closed waiting for things to get rosier so they can go right back to buying what they really want: cheap beefy safe cars, pickups, and SUVs. Hence devastating damage to Detroit, which the braying politicians blame on not ENOUGH weenie eco-toys and too many popular brawny roomy vehicles.
Of note: even if conservation somehow worked and world oil demand were reduced - OPEC could just cut production to match, spike the price back up, and go right back to fully funding terror.
All completely pointless because there's a better alternative that is being ignored amid the undeserved hype surrounding conservation - switching fuels to clean-burning, renewable alcohol or at least to high alcohol blends.
Using E85 slashes gasoline use by around 85% - far more than any conservation scheme. Yet it only costs an automaker around $100 to add E85 and other alcohol compatibility ("flex-fuel") - a huge contrast to the thousands extra it takes to make a given car a hybrid. And you can still have a spacious and powerful vehicle that working people can afford to buy and use (since alcohol is not just cheap during a crash).
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GoodCheer 12:55PM (4/15/2009)
Really Carney, your characterization of cars that get more than 20mpg as "pricey hybrids, tiny cramped cars (think "bargain" airline) and/or flimsy dangerous construction" is farcical.
Try to sound a little less like a paid shill.
Carney 2:07PM (4/15/2009)
GoodCheer, the low-hanging MPG fruit has already been picked. Europe gets praised for its MPG numbers but it gets that with swarms of little FIATs and the like that neatly fit my description. Whether you like it to be openly acknowledged or not is totally irrelevant to whether it is true.
Jharlan 1:33PM (4/15/2009)
CAFE standards are irrelevant. Market demand is going to prove to be a much stronger voice for increased economy and cleaner vehicles. The past is irrelevant. We are in a revolution away from a petroleum based economy. In the US, the people still driving dirty, fuel wasting vehicles are in a rapid decline.
Manufacturers will easily exceed the proposed CAFE standards, because if they fail to provide the most efficient vehicles, their products will be shunned, and chapter 11 will be looming.
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Carney 2:23PM (4/15/2009)
Wrong.
MPG ratings are seriously market-relevant during and immediately after an oil shock and/or economic crash, but memories are short and people soon revert to old habits and ingrained desires.
Soon, as usual, when MPGs conflict with some other desirable trait (roominess, safety, speed, power, style) they lose.
We SHOULD be in a revolution away from petroleum, but instead greens and policymakers are obsessed with being able to roll a little further down the road on the same quantity of petroleum as if it's some kind of extremely relevant, effective, and worthwhile goal, and are willing to waste years harming the economy, sinking Detroit, sacrificing driver and passenger lives, and handing over more hundreds of billions to our enemies in the meantime to keep chasing this will-o-wisp.
Meanwhile, ignored year after year, the one weapon that can slay the oil-jihad enemy, the flex-fuel mandate, just sits there on the table, waiting for our feckless political class to get a clue.
Tohe 6:06AM (4/16/2009)
It is the Administration's agenda that will be pursued.I don't see the threat in Mr. Hurley's appointment. Far more pressing are the positions of the President. I wish I'd know whether he is in favor of a particular regulative measure to accelerate the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles (like a penalty of sorts for gas users). Thus far he only showed opposition to the mileage tax.
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Carney 4:56PM (4/16/2009)
On "accelerat[ing] the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles," nothing would be more effective than simply mandating that all new cars sold in America BE alternative fuel vehicles, specifically flex-fuel vehicles, if they use gasoline. When 100% of each model year's cars can burn an alternative fuel, that's more than acceleration.
And Obama during the campaign promised to support a flex fuel mandate.
See the top of page 5 in this document:
http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/factsheet_energy_speech_080308.pdf
But it was merely buried deep down in an 8 page long laundry list of items seemingly designed to please every niche and element of the green community in turn, with no evidence of any recognition of its uniquely game-changing importance.
I never heard Obama mention it himself during the campaign (although I could certainly have missed it) and it seems to have fallen by the wayside since then.
No White House push, nothing on the radar, no mention from Hill big shots. The only bill addressing this is HR 1476, but it is not from the Congressional leadership or the relevant committee chairman, and has only 6 co-sponsors (interestingly diverse ideologically, but still pathetically small).
Tohe 8:16PM (4/17/2009)
We might be turning that corner Carney:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21370.html
Carney 1:05PM (4/20/2009)
I don't see the relevance of that article. It nowhere mentions flex-fuel vehicles or alcohol fuels at all.
Tohe 2:02PM (4/20/2009)
It is better to have a dialog to not having one at all. Congress is having a hearing on this very issue(not flex fuels, but the impact of CO2 on the environment) today, you could write to your Senators and express your view on the issue if so you wish.
william 11:57PM (4/17/2009)
Information is being fed ex tonight regarding all of those tires (in excess of 1600) in one month that were not registered. Signature will state that documents, disc and pictures will remain only in the hands of NHTSA and William Castrop. No information contained in the package is to be shared with Bridgestone other than numbers and or quantities. No documents are to be shared nor are more than 20 invoices are to be shared out of the some 800 I am forwarding to you. This information is now copyrighted.
I would like a hearing with GAO / Congress committee regarding this issue which has been denied by firestone under oath and is on transcript to that as well as their attorney's and employee's.
Please contact me upon receipt via e-mail or phone. (816 213 6759)
Bill Castrop
Bill Castrop
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