Catching up with Betsy DeVos again...

Her recent blogpost reads:

It seems to me that the leadership of the AFL-CIO has lost its focus. They have become so intent on being good little Democrats that they are abandoning the very workers they claim to represent. Everyone, industry leaders, Democrat US Senators, even Michigan AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney, recognizes that John Kerry will decimate the automotive industry if he is elected. Conservative estimates announce that half of the UAW members in Michigan will be out of a job. Half! I can’t imagine a more dire threat to union members. And yet the AFL-CIO has begun endorsing the plan in a sin by omission. Until they come out against Kerry for his blind desire to raise CAFE standards, nothing they say can be taken seriously.

It's interesting that just last month, DeVos claimed that Michigan workers were being paid too much, but with this post, she implies that she's actually concerned about union members.

I have found that indeed Levin has come out publicly against the concept of raising Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards, taking the side of the powerful auto industry, but according to fact sheets from both the Alliance to Save Energy and the Sierra Club, higher CAFE standards will, if anything, have positive effects on the economy, as well as improving air quality standards, as well as reducing our reliance on imported oil.

From Environmental Media Services:

The Benefits of CAFE Standards

The Economy and Energy Security: Current CAFE standards save more than 3 million barrels of oil per day. Without these savings, the U.S. would be importing at least 1.5 million barrels a day more oil than we currently do.

Today, 40 percent of the oil we use goes to run our cars and light trucks. Nearly half of the 19 million barrels a day of oil we use is imported from overseas. This contributes more than $50 billion to our merchandise trade deficit. By early in this century, the Energy Information Agency projects we will be importing nearly two-thirds of our oil.

OPEC has been reminding us that it controls oil supplies and prices. The U.S. uses 25 percent of the world's oil yet has only 3 percent of the world's oil reserves. We cannot drill our way to independence.

Creating Jobs: Importantly, raising CAFE standards will create jobs. An analysis by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy concludes that the consumer savings at the pump would translate into a net increase of 244,000 jobs nationwide, with 47,000 of these in the auto industry.

Consumer Savings: Because fuel economy for cars doubled between 1975 and the late 1980s, a new car purchaser saves an average of more than $3,000 at the gas pump over the lifetime of the car, at today's prices. Annually, CAFE delivers more than $40 billion in consumer savings. And, raising light truck fuel economy to 27.5 miles per gallon, for example, would save new light trucks owners dollars at the pump. According the Union of Concerned Scientists, the most popular SUV sold in the U.S., the Ford Explorer, could go from a 19 mpg gas- guzzler to a 34 mpg vehicle, using $935 in technology. Consumers would save several times this amount at the gas pump over the lifetime of the vehicle.

The Environment: CAFE standards slash urban smog by reducing carcinogenic hydrocarbon emissions, a key ozone smog precursor. Since less gas is used by cars and light trucks, less oil has to be refined, transported and pumped into gas tanks. Increasing CAFE standards will be much better for the environment than the diesel SUVs being developed by the auto companies. While switching to diesel improves fuel economy somewhat, doing so would sharply increase the pollution that causes soot and smog that triggers asthma attacks and causes cancer -- a lousy trade-off for public health.

The second way the environment is helped is through lower carbon emissions, reducing the atmospheric buildup of greenhouse gases. Over its lifetime, a typical SUV emits more almost 100 tons of CO2 and today's average new car emits 70 tons over the same lifetime and driving assumptions. Ford's "Valdez" Excursion will emit 134 tons of CO2 overt its lifetime. The more efficient the truck or car, the lower the CO2 emissions. Implementing improved CAFE standards is the biggest single step we can take to curb global warming and saving oil.

I'll be following up on this more extensively soon.