Photo: Fibonacci Blue

This feature continues with a familiar theme: fighting global warming often also prevents oil spills. Cutting back on petroleum consumption is one really effective way to reduce the number of oil spills while reducing CO2 in the atmosphere. The Union of Concerned Scientists has a really interesting action alert on this issue.

Clean Car Rule Makes History—But Auto Dealers Try to Turn Back the Clock

Recently, more than a decade of work by UCS analysts, advocates, and activists paid off when the Obama administration unveiled a strong final rule for national fuel economy standards for vehicles, which will cut global warming pollution, reduce America's oil consumption, and save consumers billions of dollars at the gas pump.

Despite the fact that many automakers support these regulations, the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) is still trying to keep cleaner cars off our roads. In a response to thousands of UCS activist letters to NADA state directors protesting their regressive lobbying and legal efforts, NADA actually makes the claim that “all of our cars are very clean” despite the fact that passenger vehicles in the United States are alone responsible for emitting more global warming emissions than the entire economies of all but three other countries in the world.

It’s time to tell NADA that consumers aren’t buying their lemon of a lawsuit. Send a message to Edward Tonkin, the 2010 chairman of NADA and vice president of Ron Tonkin Dealerships, and say that the customer is always right—American drivers want cleaner cars, not more lobbyists and lawsuits.

Please Take Action!

Considering how much most people hate car dealerships, why would their trade association cause further damage to the reputation of its members? This is just like the idiot automaker executives who kept making low mileage pieces of junk while the unions tried to get them to make fuel efficient vehicles people actually wanted.

The action alert is particularly interesting because it focuses on a trade association. Trade associations often play a leading role in the corruption in DC, yet they are only beginning to get some of the attention they deserve from liberals and progressives. Efforts by the Chamber of Commerce to block climate change legislation are another example of unethical behavior by these associations. The Chamber was involved in the lawsuit, though this action alert focuses on the car dealers.