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Automakers Lobbying For Gas Hogs

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By DAVID GUEST

Special to the Tribune

Published: March 22, 2009

American automakers have their hands out for another giant multibillion-dollar taxpayer bailout. But what are these corporations doing in the Sunshine State? They're spending big bucks on Tallahassee lobbyists who are doing their best to fight Gov. Charlie Crist's wise move to require cleaner cars.

Automobile-industry lobbyists are insisting that Florida simply can't adopt Crist's proposal for cleaner cars without certain catastrophe.

"This is the wrong year to address this issue," Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers lobbyist Wade Hopping told a legislative committee in February.

How many times does the public have to gasp in disbelief at the American automobile industry? First they show up in their private corporate jets demanding multibillion-dollar handouts from Washington. When they get bailout money, they hire expensive lobbyists to fight for more fleets of gas-guzzlers? That wasn't what the bailout money was for.

A February poll shows that 71 percent of Floridians say the state should require car makers to sell cleaner cars and trucks that spew fewer global-warming gasses. The poll was taken of a random sample of 500 Democrat and Republican voters on behalf of Audubon of Florida, the Florida Wildlife Federation and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Also, when asked whether "the state of Florida should regulate greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, the same way they do other air pollutants," 70 percent of voters said yes.

Since pollution coming from car tailpipes causes global warming, and Floridians are more vulnerable to rising sea levels and more-powerful hurricanes, it makes sense to address this problem quickly. Forty percent of Florida's carbon dioxide emissions come from cars and light trucks, so working to cut tailpipe emissions is the place to start.

Crist's proposal creates incentives for more efficient cars, requiring a 23 percent cut in heat-trapping emissions from new cars by 2012 and a 30 percent cut by 2016. Individual vehicles wouldn't have to meet the standard. Instead, the standard is an average of all cars sold in the state. Some vehicles would be exempt.

The people clearly support Crist's clean cars proposal. But will that matter in the Legislature? Florida's tiny group of environmental lobbyists is outgunned by the legion of high-priced auto industry lobbyists who buy the ears of Florida legislators year in and year out.

From here, it looks like the automakers are using their billions in bailout money to fight for more fleets of gas guzzlers. That's what got them to the brink of bankruptcy in the first place, and we should put a halt to it here and now.

David Guest is an attorney for Earthjustice, a Tallahassee nonprofit organization dedicated to enforcing and strengthening environmental laws.

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