Automakers get message on improving efficiency

Detroit Free Press: The bluntest wake-up call from the National Commission on Energy Policy goes to automakers, which it says already have much of what it takes to make huge gains in efficiency.
The commission cites studies that show gains of 6-20 miles per gallon and cuts of 30 to 47 percent in greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved quickly, cost-effectively and without making vehicles smaller or lighter.
To sweeten the pot and protect domestic production, the report urges tax incentives for consumers and retooling help for automakers.
Members couldn't agree on an m.p.g. target, but they had no qualms about insisting that near-term technology improvements, including hybrids and advanced diesel engines, can and should be put in place over a five-year period starting in 2010.
Lawsuit
Given that confidence in automakers' abilities, it's disheartening the companies still fight every official call for efficiency. Just two weeks ago, they sued to overturn California's new law that requires a 30 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by the 2016 model year.
The new General Motors-DaimlerChrysler partnership on hybrids offers at least some optimism that all the domestic manufacturers now are serious about efficiency advances. They'd better be.
Commission member R. James Woolsey, the former CIA director, spoke of the need for auto industry change as a "wartime urgency." He said: "This nation must do everything in its power to weaken and destroy its enemies.
"Retooling ... to produce fuel-efficient vehicles can be expected to run in the billions of dollars, but the benefits include cutting growth in U.S. oil consumption in half, robbing our enemies of financial support, and insulating the nation from the economic risks associated with oil price shocks."
That's a post-9/11 strategy this country should embrace, not continue to dodge.