Romney has turned his back on the U.S. auto industry, the author writes. Car standards and the candidates

Anyone who wonders about the difference between a Romney administration and an Obama administration doesn’t need to look any further than the fuel-efficiency standards recently finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation.

These standards will double the average fuel efficiency of new vehicles and cut carbon pollution in half. By 2030, these standards will cut U.S. greenhouse gas pollution by 10 percent and halve the number of fill-ups needed by cars and trucks. These are the most significant actions any president has taken to solve climate disruption and move our nation beyond oil. And it wouldn’t have happened if Mitt Romney had his way.


Take political posturing out of the equation, and most everyone knows that the only way to deal with high gas prices is to use less gas. It’s also the fastest way to curb climate pollution. And one of the best ways to create U.S. jobs is to stand behind the automakers and autoworkers who want to build more efficient cars and light trucks. They want to build them because Americans want to buy them.

Efficiency is now the most important factor for Americans buying a car. That’s why, by encouraging the innovation that helps automakers compete, these new standards could help create more than 570,000 jobs, according to a recent study by the BlueGreen Alliance.

Yet a deep-pocketed and powerful lobby is working to pull us back into the Dark Ages. In 2011, three oil corporations — Shell, BP and Exxon — were among the four wealthiest companies in the world. To Big Oil, fuel-efficiency standards mean fewer fill-ups – which means lower corporate profits, so Big Oil launched a full-fledged assault on President Barack Obama’s job-creating fuel efficiency plan.

We’ve entered an age in which corporate money is political speech — and Romney is all ears. Just last week — days before he released his own energy plan — Romney raked in nearly $10 million at oil-laced fundraisers in Texas. Oil executives are pumping money into Romney’s campaign and associated super PACs, and rumors are flowing that he’d stock his Cabinet with them.

Romney’s campaign rhetoric sounds like Big Oil’s talking points. He has rejected the science of climate change, supported billions in tax subsidies to oil companies and appointed an oil executive as his top energy adviser. His is an oil-above-all agenda. So it’s no big surprise that Romney stands with BP and Shell and opposes these fuel-efficiency standards.

This is not the first time Romney has turned his back on the U.S. auto industry. His 2008 New York Times op-ed piece suggested we should “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” — prescribing exactly what the title says. He refused to help then, and he won’t help now.

In rejecting these new standards, Romney’s rhetoric harkens back to the 1970s and 1980s, when U.S. automakers lost their competitive edge. But in 2012, their business is surging, and they are back among the top automakers worldwide because they are listening to drivers and pushing the technological envelope.

Automakers support these new fuel-efficiency standards because they have a wide selection of technologies ready to meet and exceed them — from direct fuel injection and turbochargers to advanced transmissions and hybrid engines. And U.S. drivers don’t need encouragement to adopt these technologies. They want to buy vehicles that deliver better mileage, cut pollution and save money on gas.

Obama chose to bet on U.S. industry and U.S. workers, putting our economy before the narrow interests of a relative handful of oil executives. He stepped in and invested in innovation, efficiency and pollution reduction to reinvigorate the auto industry.

Tens of thousands of jobs that Romney would have dispatched have been protected — saving an industry now able to help power the recovery of the entire U.S. economy.

These new fuel standards can help build on that momentum, helping put more than 500,000 Americans to work. They’ll slash the emissions linked to climate change, protecting the future of our planet. They’ll also save families thousands at the pump every year.

Oil companies rely on keeping us dependent on the energy of the past. Obama, by looking toward a brighter future for our planet and our economy, is making sure all Americans win big — not just the privileged few.

Michael Brune is executive director of the Sierra Club.