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Today in America, automakers want to sell option packages featuring seat warmers and cup holders. What America really needs is an option package that saves consumers money on gas, addresses the crisis of global warming, and frees us from dependence on foreign oil. For more information or to get involved in the campaign contact Chris Hallgren at greencars@sierraclubmass.org.

The Problem:
Americans are spending much more money at the gas pump than they could or should be spending. The average fuel economy of today’s cars and light trucks has been estimated at just 24.6 miles per gallon, with many of the best-selling SUV models performing 10 or more mpg lower. Meanwhile, a proposal by Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and Arizona Senator John McCain to use existing technology to increase national average fuel economy standards to 36 mpg by 2013 was defeated in Congress last March, largely due to a multimillion-dollar lobbying and ad campaign launched by the auto industry.

The gasoline burned in American passenger vehicles is a huge contributor to the growing problem of global warming. Each year the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released from the tailpipes of American cars and SUVs exceeds the total greenhouse gas emissions from all but four other nations.

Our country’s dependence on oil threatens our national security and complicates our foreign policy. We use 8 million barrels of oil every day to fuel our cars and SUVs, over half of which is imported. By 2020 that number is expected to rise to 62%.

The Solution:
The Sierra Club has put together a Freedom Option Package of fuel-saving technologies that are available right now in the research labs of American automakers and which could be included in all models of cars, SUVs and light trucks without compromising safety or performance.

The Freedom Option Package includes:
• Continuously Variable Automatic Transmissions to help boost fuel economy through better gear ratios, which are now offered in several vehicles including one SUV.
• Variable-Valve Control Engines which enhance engine performance by controlling the mix of fuel and air more precisely.
• Integrated Starter Generators which save fuel by stopping the engine from using as much as 15 percent of its gas while idling in traffic.

Taken together, the technologies in the Freedom Option Package would enable the Big Three American automakers—Ford, GM, and Daimler Chrysler—to produce fleets of passenger vehicles averaging 40 miles per gallon by 2012.

Doing this would:
• Save consumers money at the pump. An owner of a Ford Taurus with these technologies could have a 40-mpg vehicle and would save $1,966 on gas over the life of the car, while the owner of a Ford Explorer with the package could have a 34-mpg vehicle and would save $2,633 over the car’s lifetime. (These are net savings after subtracting the cost of the improvements.)
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Massachusetts alone by 37 million tons by the end of 2012.
• Reduce our dependence on foreign oil by saving nearly 2 million barrels of oil a day by the beginning of the next decade, and nearly 4 million barrels daily by 2020. This is more oil than current imports from the Persian Gulf and the projected yield from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge combined.

How You Can Help:
Join us in calling on the Big Three to integrate the Freedom Option Package into all of their vehicles! We’ll be concentrating first on Ford Motor Company because its CEO, Bill Ford, Jr., has repeatedly expressed his company’s commitment to environmentally sustainable practices, and we believe that this will make Ford an ideal leader in bringing the Freedom Option Package into the dealer showrooms of American car companies. You can urge Ford to take on this leadership role by:
• Calling Ford corporate headquarters
• Visiting local Ford dealers
• Writing a letter to the editor of a local paper
• Signing up as a campaign volunteer

For more information on the campaign’s activities in Massachusetts or to express an interest in volunteering, contact:

Chris Hallgren, Responsible Automakers Campaign Organizer
Sierra Club Massachusetts Chapter
100 Boylston Street, suite 760
Boston, MA 02116
617-423-5775 (tel)
617-423-5858 (fax)
greencars@sierraclubmass.org
or visit www.sierraclub.org/freedom.

The Massachusetts Chapter would like to thank organizer Karla Gilbride for her tremendous work initiating the Chapter's Responsible Automakers Campaign, as well as thank all the new volunteers and campaign organizers that Karla has brought on board to work with the Chapter.