Never Mind the Brakes

By S.C. Gwynne/Detroit

Every parent of a son or daughter in the Persian Gulf ought to ask his Congressman, What's your plan to reduce our dependency on foreign oil?" Richard Bryan, a Nevada Democrat, made that challenge last week after the Senate voted to block his bill, which would have imposed tough new fuel- economy laws on the auto industry. Unfortunately, most members of Congress would have to answer, "We don't have one."

In the two decades since the Arab oil embargo demonstrated America's vulnerability to the whims of foreign producers, the U.S. still has nothing resembling an energy policy. As oil prices reached $40 per bbl. last week, up from less than $20 before Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the Bush Administration sought solace in one of the few provisions the U.S. has made for an energy crisis: the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Bush ordered 5 million bbl. of crude to be tapped from the 590 million-bbl. pool, which is stored in salt caverns in East Texas and Louisiana.

The reserve, established in 1975, holds the equivalent of 66 days' worth of oil imports. By releasing a symbolic trickle of 167,000 bbl. a day and demonstrating his willingness to open the spigot, Bush aims to curb the speculative frenzy in the oil markets. But oil traders, inflamed by the prospect of war in the Persian Gulf, have reacted with indifference. Scoffed Michel Halbouty, a Houston wildcatter: "It was like going to Galveston and pouring a glass of water into the Gulf of Mexico."

In Congress the failure of the Bryan bill pointed up how difficult it has been for legislators to come up with a plan to conserve gasoline. The original gas-guzzler law, passed in 1975, required automakers to achieve by 1978 an average fuel economy of 18 m.p.g. for all their models, up from an estimated ^ 14 m.p.g. in 1974. The standard, called Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE), was scheduled to reach 27.5 m.p.g. by 1985, but the Reagan Administration eased the level to 26 for 1986-88, which enabled automakers to indulge resurgent tastes for more powerful cars.

The Bryan bill would have required new-car fleets to reach a 34 m.p.g. average by 1996 and 40 m.p.g. by 2001. That would reduce U.S. oil consumption an estimated 2.8 million bbl. a day, or more than 15% of current usage. The proposal drew high-torque opposition from the automobile lobby, the United Auto Workers union, the insurance industry and the White House. They contended that the law would hurt the auto industry and hamper safety by forcing carmakers to build smaller vehicles. Many critics questioned the technological feasibility of achieving 40 m.p.g. in just a decade. "The best we could do, without having major shifts in car size, would be 35 m.p.g. by the year 2000," says John B. Heywood, director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory at M.I.T.

The most effective solution, many experts say, would be a combination of market incentives and somewhat higher fuel-efficiency standards. A stiff gasoline tax of $1 per gal. would encourage consumers to choose more economical autos. At the same time, higher CAFE levels would require automakers to develop and produce efficient cars even during times of relatively cheap gasoline. But the current rise in oil prices may be too much of a slow-motion crisis to shatter the status quo. If the Bryan bill's fate is any indication, Washington is stuck in first gear on the road to a sensible energy policy.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE

CREDIT: TIME Chart by Steve Hart

CAPTION: STALLED PERFORMANCE

With reporting by Ann Blackman/Washington and Richard Woodbury/Houston