[A-List] US economy: Hummer bummer

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

SUVs set off Hummer of a row
By Ian Urbina and Zachary Roth
Asia Times, March 12 2003

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.