Fighting over gas guzzlers

By ALASTAIR SLOANE

Activists who disrupted the World Trade Organisation conference in Seattle in 1999 are planning to gatecrash Ford's 100th birthday party next month to highlight environmental opposition to fuel-thirsty vehicles like the Hummer H2.

An American motoring industry website says two protest groups, Rainforest Action Network and Global Exchange, plan to disrupt the company's centennial celebration because it is dropping plans to improve the fuel economy of its vehicles.

The groups are said to be among those who rampaged through downtown Seattle four years ago to protest the WTO meeting, headed by former New Zealand Prime Minister Mike Moore.

Ford has cited a drop-off in sales, unfavourable market conditions and technological problems for deciding to hold off on plans to build more fuel-efficient vehicles.

The planned protest is another chapter in the American war over new fuel economy regulations for sport utility vehicles, or four-wheel-drives.

Environmental groups say lack of progress on more fuel-efficient vehicles could be responsible for future wars involving Americans in the Middle East.

Two environment groups - the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Detroit Project - argue that America needs an SUV that can get 40 mpg, but say the problem is that "Detroit won't build it". The Hummer H2 gets 11 to 13 mpg.

"It could take America to work in the morning without sending it to war in the afternoon," the two groups say of such an SUV in an advertisement being aired in the US.

The groups argue that carmakers are not doing enough with voluntary programmes to improve fuel economy. They say that if SUVs and other vehicles got 40 mpg, it would allow the United States to stop importing oil from the Middle East and cut off financial support for governments that support terrorism.

"Detroit is waving a white flag instead of an American flag. They have surrendered the battle for energy security," said NRDC attorney Robert F. Kennedy jnr.

"It's time for sensible standards that put existing technology on the road in every car, truck and SUV."

But American carmakers say they are doing what they can to improve fuel economy, and that they're planning to introduce SUVs with hybrid gas and electric engines that get a 40 per cent improvement in fuel economy, or better.

General Motors said its Saturn VUE hybrid SUV will be available in 2005. Ford said it will offer a hybrid Escape SUV for fleet customers by the end of this year, and for consumers next year.

But the carmakers said they can't force consumers to pay for the more fuel-efficient vehicles.

"We don't have any guarantees people are going to buy it," Ford spokesman Mike Moran said. "It has to be market-driven."

GM said it was working on clean fuel-cell vehicles but doesn't expect to have commercially viable models until 2010.

"We've got a short-, mid- and long-term technology plans to help us increase fuel efficiency which are also good from a business perspective," said GM spokeswoman Joanne Krell. "We would say we're giving customers what they want to buy."

The environmentalists support fuel cells, but say more needs to be done now to improve fuel economy.

"Fuel cells are a terrific long-term solution," Kennedy said. "But we have an energy security problem now, and we need solutions now. Car companies are blaming American consumers for a scandal that starts in Detroit and ends in Washington."