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SUVs set off Hummer of a
row
By Ian Urbina and Zachary Roth
With each day the United States
moves ever closer to an invasion of Iraq, and while many
disagree about the motivations, most admit that oil is
certainly a prime factor. But the drive to war is also
showing repercussions on the home front as the issue of
fuel
consumption and gas-guzzling vehicles has set off a
firestorm of debate.
At a time when even
President George W Bush himself stressed the need to
reduce our dependence on foreign oil in his recent State
of the Union address, large and highly inefficient
sports utility vehicles, so-called SUVs, now dominate
the market. Purchased most often for their roominess,
these over-sized trucks sit significantly higher than
most everything else on the road, providing a real sense
of empowerment to the suburban moms who make up the
majority of their drivers. This muscular feel is one of
the biggest selling points of these vehicles,
particularly as war looms and insecurities about
possible reprisals grip many Americans.
One
particularly popular and controversial purchase is the
new line of H2 Hummers, which came out this past summer,
and is predicted to double last year's sales. "I need a
car that no matter what happens in this town -
earthquake, civil unrest, fire, flood - I can get
through it, under it, or over it," one Los Angeles buyer
was quoted as saying.
General Motors
unflinchingly touts the Hummer as an SUV that "can drop
and give you 20," and that's hardly an exaggeration.
When the Hummer first came to national attention during
the 1991 Gulf War, it was known as the "High Mobility
Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle", a military truck whose
design allowed it to survive helicopter drops, land
mines and the rugged terrain of the Kuwaiti desert. It
was parachuted into civilian life the following year,
with a little help from Arnold Schwarzenegger, who
persuaded its military makers to offer a consumer
version: the H1.
For Jim Lynch, who runs Lynch
Hummer, the world's largest Hummer dealership in St
Louis, Missouri, the Hummer's ability to perform in
battlefield-style conditions is a major part of its
appeal. "It gives you a feeling of security. That if I
had to, I could get somewhere I needed to go when the
roads were destroyed."
But not everyone feels
more secure with the growing popularity of these
behemoths. A backlash from all sides in under way, with
the critics ranging from environmentalists to
Evangelical Christians.
Late last year one of
the country's largest environmental groups launched a
campaign with radio and television ads featuring a
former senator from Nebraska (Bob Kerry) and a retired
vice admiral (Jack Shanahan) urging the auto industry to
produce more fuel-efficient cars. Around the same time,
a broad coalition of religious groups initiated a
grassroots effort linking US over-consumption of fuel to
immorality. Their ads asked "What Would Jesus Drive?"
implying that the religious thing to do was not to
purchase the opulent four-wheel drive SUVs so
increasingly in vogue. The ecumenical organization
called a meeting with William Clay Ford Jr, the chief
executive of Ford Motor Company to push the issue of
using the available technology to sell more efficient
cars.
Eventually, Hollywood got in the act, as a
prime time pundit named Ariana Huffington started
pushing a line of television ads which connected SUVs to
terrorism, arguing, in perhaps overstated fashion, that
a trip to the pump was putting money in the pockets of
radical militants. This line was also peddled in a
recent a best-selling book titled When You Ride
Alone, You Ride With bin Laden, playing on the World
War II-era oil conservation slogan, "When You Ride
Alone, You Ride With Hitler", implicitly suggesting that
Bush has been unwilling to ask for a similar level of
sacrifice.
Whether these campaigns will
politically embarrass the White House or economically
leverage auto makers enough to make a difference is
difficult to predict. They have certainly stirred debate
where it once wasn't. But for the time being, it seems
that Washington is unfazed. Disregarding its critics on
the home front, the Bush administration announced only
the most cosmetic changes to fuel efficiency standards.
And abroad, the push toward Baghdad marches on.
(©2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights
reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com
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policies.)
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