Six months ago no one believed the energy bill that passed the House last weekend would have seen the light of day. It's now unstoppable in the Senate. And it's hard to imagine how the president could veto it, given his own call for higher mileage in his last state of the union address. If and when it passes, it will raise America's fleet-wide average to 35 mpg by 2020.
Hybrids, turbo-diesels, flex-fuel vehicles and perhaps even electric cars will help automakers meet the new mileage standards. But no solution will work faster and more effectively than a large-scale weight reduction program. Yes, boys and girls, piggy cars are about to trim down. Some so-called safety advocates argue that lighter cars will be more dangerous. It's a perverse conception of safety. Light-weight cars are dangerous only when they're being t-boned by the civilian tanks that pose as trucks and SUVs--far less stable and road-worthy than smaller, lighter cars. Just ask anyone in auto racing: Weight is the enemy of road holding, fuel efficiency and emissions.
Automakers resist light-weight vehicles because the ride is harsh and the usable space is limited. Adding size and weight have been cheap and easy ways to please the consumer. None more so than those who buy trucks and SUVs, which have legal protections that let them escape the safety demands of other vehicles. After all, why bother? They're just murderous battering rams on the highway. With the energy bill a near cinch, it's time to demand that trucks and SUVs comply with the same safety constraints as other cars--unibody construction, crumple zones, the whole works. The costs would force automakers to reduce the size and weight of these elephantine vehicles. We'd all be safer. We'd all breathe easier.
