Oil
Companies and car manufacturers are responsible
for the inefficient fuel economy
By Jamie Ouye
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
With
the summer sun finally here students are
starting to take their summer road trips,
but students are definitely feeling the
squeeze from the still high gas prices.
Have you ever stopped to wonder how we got
to this present reliance on cars with inefficient
fuel economy?
The
answer to this question is that lies on
oil companies and car manufacturers being
reluctant to see fuel-efficient vehicles
and trying to prevent the consumer friendly
fleet from surfacing.
This
tale starts in 1926-36 when nine companies
including General Motors, Standard Oil,
and Firestone methodically bought and closed
much of the mass transit in the United States.
This is a move that would have secured the
future of their industries. The price they
paid was an indictment by a California grand
jury in 1947 for violating sections one
and two of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
After
the indictment the American public established
a clear connection between oil companies
and car manufacturers. This connection bred
the conspiracy theory that car manufacturers
have been continuing a cozy relationship
with the oil companies by not improving
the fuel efficiency of their vehicles.
Is
this a valid theory or is there a conspiracy
within the multi-billion dollar industry?
PBS’s NewsHour Extra said that in 2001 the
car industry in the United States sold 17
million vehicles. According to Gibson Consulting,
a geologist’s Web site, the United States
consumes about 18.5 million barrels of oil
per day, which is approximately 777 million
gallons. Gibson also said that if you were
to line up the amount of oil consumed by
the United States each day, in one-gallon
jugs, they would encircle the earth at the
equator almost six times and spread about
147,000 miles. He also said that every day
the United States imports $50+ billion per
year amounting to the largest single element
of our trade deficit.
Another
article relates the two industries showing
that the United States possesses only three
percent of the world's natural oil reserves
but uses 25 percent and 40 percent of that
for cars.
The
excuse for years from companies has been
that consumers put performance before fuel
efficiency. In 1906 General Motors introduced
a four-cylinder Model D and in the 1930’s
automobiles were beginning to really push
out the horsepower. In the 1960’s muscle
cars and their powerful engines ruled. So
Americans are in the year 2003 almost a
century since General Motors introduced
a four-cylinder engine and 40 years after
the ample powered engines of the 1960’s.
The public must wonder why there are still
cars that guzzle gas allowing one to travel
a mere 13 miles per gallon, like the new
Hummer H2 that was introduced this past
year by General Motors. Sure the Hummer
H2 produces a potent 360 lb-ft in torque
but after 100 years in the making, a vehicle
getting 13 mpg is unacceptable. The Hummer
H2 is not an exception, there are hundreds
of other automotive choices out there that
get similar to worse gas mileage.
The
car manufacturers have been making some
progress in recent years. For the past two
decades car manufacturers have developed
the idea of electric vehicles. Either because
the lack of technology or a lack of valiant
enough effort the electric vehicle never
came to full potential. The electric vehicles
produced were usually ugly, slow, and poor
maneuvering. On top of the poor performance
capabilities they had to be recharged at
special stations and were expensive to purchase.
It does not take a genius to figure out
why hardly anyone bought an electric vehicle
when you look at those shortfalls. If they
had the technology to produce a reasonably
powerful, nimble, and attractive car, the
future for electric vehicles would be still
something the public would want to see.
One
good thing that came out of the electric
vehicle research was the electric assisted
petroleum engine. Vehicles powered by these
electric assisted engines are called Hybrids
and have been showing up over the past few
years. Hybrids have been selling relatively
well and have grabbed national acclaim.
They have gained the support of Hollywood
and the list of actors and actresses buying
them include: Larry David, Tom Hanks, Bill
Maher, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz,
Brad Pitt, David Duchovny, Ted Danson, David
Hyde Pierce, Kurt Russell, Patricia Arquette,
Kirk Douglas, Alicia Silverstone, Will Ferrell,
among others. Even with star power behind
the Hybrid automobiles they are not selling
as well as other automobiles sitting next
to them on the car lots. This is probably
due again to the performance and looks of
the Hybrid vehicles.
If
Chevrolet were to release a Hybrid Corvette
that retained its performance characteristics
it would probably leave the sports car field
in the dust in sales. The car would probably
be a little bit heavier and may lose a few
horsepower, but with a car that produces
350 hp and 360 lb-ft. of torque, car enthusiasts
would not mind that much. Consumers would
not mind because the Corvette that gets
19-28 mpg would get significantly better
gas mileage. To demonstrate the drastic
difference in fuel efficiency Honda just
introduced the Civic Hybrid. The Civic Hybrid
produces 80 hp, but achieves around 50 mpg
in city traffic. The normal petroleum only
engine produces 115 hp, but gets only 32
mpg in city traffic. This means that the
13-gallon Hybrid Civic can drive approximately
235 miles further than the petroleum powered
model on a tank of gas.
Are
the oil companies and the car manufacturers
reluctant to see fuel-efficient or fuel
independent vehicles? Definitely, but are
they trying to prevent the consumer friendly
fleet from surfacing is the real question.
I think so, why? Because the difference
between the regular Civic and the Hybrid
was 35 hp and 18 mpg and there isn’t a Corvette
that produces 300 hp instead of 350 hp and
has the fuel efficiency of the common grown
Honda Civic with a difference of 13 mpg.
Jamie
Ouye is a journalism student at Cal State
Long Beach
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