3. Every gallon of gasoline burned releases 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. According the the EPA, by choosing a vehicle that achieves 25 mpg rather than 20 mpg, you can prevent the release of 15 tons of greenhouse gas pollution over the life of the vehicle. Ibid., p. 3.
Extra credit for math whizzes: by choosing a 40 mpg hybrid car over a 10 mpg CAFE-exempt H2 Hummer, how much CO2 pollution do you avoid generating?

4. Over the life of the vehicle, the average Model Year 2000 light truck will burn 3,500 gallons more fuel than the average passenger car and emit 33 tons more CO2. Friedman, et al., Drilling In Detroit: Tapping Automaker Ingenuity To Build Safe and Efficient Automobiles (Union of Concerned Scientists 2001), p. 22. Large SUVs and pickups are allowed to emit 5.5 times more smog-forming pollutants than passenger cars. Bradsher, Keith, High and Mighty: SUVs: The World’s Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way (Public Affairs 2002), p. 266.

5. Even though the National Academy of Sciences found that a 40 mpg vehicle fleet could be phased in rapidly using existing technology, and a 40 mpg Suburban already exists in prototype, automakers spent millions in 2002 successfully lobbying for the defeat of a fuel-economy plan that would not have required CAFE standards to reach 36 mpg for thirteen years. Automakers even spent significant sums in 2003 trying to block a Bush administration proposal to raise light truck fuel economy standards by a mere 1.5 mpg.

6. Despite improvements in fleet-wide fuel economy from 1970 to 2000, gasoline consumption in the United States has increased by 50% during the same period and is projected to grow another 50% by 2020 to 189 billion gallons. This will mean a 55% increase in smog-forming pollutants, in cancer-causing pollutants and in greenhouse gases. Friedman, pp. 12-15.

7. Many of the most popular SUVs are built on rigid truck frames that lack shock-absorbing "crumple zones" to absorb energy in a crash. This means both the occupants of the SUV and the occupants of other vehicles involved in the crash are more likely to be injured. The high front ends of these vehicles make them especially lethal to occupants of cars, which are designed to withstand crashes with other cars, not trucks. Bradsher, pp. 85-7; 166-206.

8. Pickups and SUVs are involved in a higher percentage of rollovers than passenger cars – the rate of fatal rollovers for pickups is twice that for passenger cars and the rate for SUVs is almost three times the passenger car rate. Overall, rollover affects about three percent of passenger vehicles involved in crashes but accounts for 32 percent of passenger vehicle occupant fatalities. More than 10,000 people died in rollover crashes in 2001. Testimony of Hon. Jeffrey W. Runge, M.D., Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, February 26, 2003.

9. While light trucks represent 36 percent of all registered vehicles and half of current vehicle sales, they are already involved in about half of all fatal two-vehicle crashes with passenger cars. In these crashes, over 80 percent of the resulting fatalities are to occupants of the passenger cars. This problem will continue to grow as the percentage of light trucks in the fleet increases. SUVs account for about 35 percent of light truck sales. Ibid.

10. As the current glut of recently-manufactured SUVs passes for the first time into the used-car market the most likely purchasers are teenagers and college-age young people, a crash-prone age group. Already, one-third of deaths in this age group are from vehicle crashes. Bradsher, p. 350. Jeffrey Runge, the Bush administration’s NHTSA head, says he would not allow his teenage children to drive a rollover-prone SUV even "if it was the last one on earth." Wall Street Journal 2/7/2003 p. A4.

back to top