Miles Per Cob - New York Times
The New York Times

May 8, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor

Miles Per Cob
By TOM DASCHLE and VINOD KHOSLA

Washington

ON Wednesday, the White House proposed to overhaul fuel economy standards
for automobiles by making them "size based," with differing requirements for
big
and small cars. Automakers worry that any revisions will hurt their
business; environmentalists oppose the administration's plan, and its
earlier proposal
for revising mileage standards for light trucks, as not going far enough.
But a debate on Corporate Average Fuel Economy, known as CAFE, misses the
point;
if we are serious about reducing our dependence on imported oil, we need to
shift our focus.

Our addiction to oil underlies the greatest threats to our country's
stability and prosperity: we pump billions of dollars into fundamentalist
"petrolist"
regimes in the Middle East and release into the atmosphere carbon from
petroleum products, perpetuating global warming and aggravating natural
disasters
from the Gulf Coast to the Indian Ocean.

The answer to these threats is research and innovation to commercialize new
fuel technologies in partnership with America's farmers. Our national
leadership
must promote a market-based shift away from petroleum-based fuels toward
renewable fuels produced in America with American technology.

The CAFE standard does nothing to encourage that change. It requires
American automakers to build cars and trucks that meet a minimum standard of
average
mileage traveled per gallon of gasoline. But the current standard for
minimum mileage traveled per gallon of gas consumed is both too low and
focused on
the wrong challenge.

We need to upgrade to a new CAFE: Carbon Alternative Fuel Equivalent. This
new CAFE will measure "petroleum mileage" and give automakers incentives and
credits for increasing ethanol consumption as a percentage of fuel use of
their vehicles, not least by promoting flex-fuel vehicles, which can run on
either
gasoline or E85 fuel, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.
This approach promises several significant benefits.

First, it could set America free from its dependence on foreign oil. As
Brazil's "energy independence miracle" proves, an aggressive strategy of
investing
in petroleum substitutes like ethanol can end dependence on imported oil.

Second, switching from gasoline to ethanol produced from perennial energy
crops like switch grass can slash our carbon dioxide emissions.

Third, it could build on a comparative advantage of American automakers.
American auto manufacturers are churning out hundreds of thousands of
flex-fuel
vehicles. Their foreign competitors make far fewer. Promoting these vehicles
will help our automakers build on their already strong market share.

And fourth, by encouraging the production of ethanol and new renewable fuel
technologies, this new CAFE standard could invigorate rural communities in
America's
heartland and innovation and research centers along its coasts.

This new CAFE would start us on our way to a very different future. And
Congress can take an important first step by making it easier for consumers
to buy
E85 gas. Fewer than 1,000 of the nation's 180,000 retail gas stations offer
E85, thanks largely to interference by big oil companies. Congress should
take
action to prohibit such anticompetitive practices.

So instead of squabbling over a mile a gallon here and a mile a gallon
there, let's move to a new CAFE standard that offers Americans a fresh
chance to
work together to meet some of this country's most pressing challenges.

Tom Daschle, the former Democratic Senate majority leader, is a fellow at
the Center for American Progress. Vinod Khosla, a founder of Sun
Microsystems,
is a venture capitalist.

Posted by Miriam V.