
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 2, 1991                   TAG: 9104020517
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DETROIT'S WORD/ FUEL MISERS WON'T SELL IF GAS IS CHEAP

EVERY SO often, when oil supply again becomes an issue, U.S. automakers troop to Washington to testify to Congress. For most appearances, it would suffice if they carried posters reading "It Can't Be Done" and replayed tapes of their previous testimony.

It was different the other day. Detroit still was protesting that it's impractical for Congress to require automakers to improve their fuel economy. But industry representatives had something useful to tell the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee: Even with very fuel-efficient engines, you're not going to save a lot of fuel unless gasoline becomes more costly.

"Higher [fuel-economy] standards in an era of cheap gasoline is self-defeating policy," argued Ronald Bolz, Chrysler's vice president for product strategy. Peter Pestillo, a Ford v.p., said that as long is gasoline is cheap, consumers will refuse to buy fuel-efficient cars that may be smaller and more expensive.

Makes perfect sense. You may not want one of the tank-like gas guzzlers Detroit produced in the early 1970s. Those long since gave way to more compact vehicles, in part because federal law required improved fleet mileage.

But unless you worry about needing a loan every time you fill your fuel tank, you're unlikely to find appealing a model that might be downsized even more. In recent years, car buyers have shown an increasing preference for the bigger models. Economy's no great concern when gasoline is cheap, and in relative terms it costs less now per gallon than it did back when autos were huge.

The automakers are saying that if Congress mandates another improvement in fuel efficiency (one standard discussed is a 40-mile-per-gallon average), it is they who'll bear the expense of redesign and retooling - then be left with cars few Americans will want to buy.

"At today's gasoline prices," said Ford's Pestillo, "it would take 10 to 20 years of fuel savings for the customer to recoup the initial investment."

The solution is for the federal government to end what in effect is a gasoline subsidy, and for Congress and the White House to agree on a hefty increase in the gasoline tax. The proceeds could help offset foreign-policy and environmental clean-up costs attributable to America's oil thirst.

It also could help cut those costs by reducing oil consumption, and thereby easing dependence on imported oil, reducing pollution and other bad environmental effects, increasing Americans' interest in mass transit - and providing a market for more efficient autos of the future.

No telling where this could end. Now if only Washington would get interested.

by CNB