Wow, so prescient! Things look a bit different 16 months later, don't they?
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Barack's Sister Souljah Moment?
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That's exactly what he did, too. And that plays well in the rest of the country. Detroit's reflexive defensiveness on boosting gas mileage goes over like sand in the gears in a country struggling with $3 a gallon gas (and worrying it will go to $4). The fact is Japanese automakers do lead in hybrids and fuel-efficient crossover models, while Detroit remains too dependent on big SUVs and trucks. Sure, American automakers are now working on new mileage misers, but they are playing catch-up. That's why the Detroit Three combined lost more than $16 billion last year, while Toyota earned a record $14 billion and surpassed GM as the world's largest automaker. "I would love it if Detroit would stop being defensive," says auto analyst Peter DeLorenzo, whose inbox filled with hate mail after he wrote a blog supporting Obama's call to action on fuel economy. "There's tremendous negativity toward Detroit among consumers and a lot of it is self-inflicted."
Indeed, dismissing Detroit as a relic of the bygone American Century is politically popular just about everywhere at the moment. In fact, Obama didn't even have to leave town to find support on that front. After his speech, he raced off to two fund-raisers in Detroit, including a $2,300-a-plate dinner at Seldom Blues, a hip jazz restaurant atop the General Motors headquarters building along the Detroit River. The restaurant was packed with about 250 people, but the crowd didn't include auto execs, UAW leaders or Mayor Kilpatrick. That might work for now, as Obama attempts to define himself as an independent thinker. But ultimately, like Al Gore, Obama will have to make nice with those he criticized in Motown. Why? For the last four presidential elections, Michigan has gone Blue, unlike many Midwestern states. "In the end, the presidential race is all about electoral votes," says Kilpatrick. "If Michigan is not important to a particular candidate, that's fine. But we've got 18 electoral votes. That's pretty significant." If Obama hopes to win the White House, he might make his next drive through Detroit more of a joy ride.
Switching Gears: Griping and Guzzling
While the Detroit power elite debated Obama's speech this week, regular folks were busy griping about gas prices.
Joan Witte suffered sticker shock at the gas pump last week when it cost her nearly $50 to fill up her Ford Taurus. When she got home, she and her husband sat down and computed their new monthly gas bill: $500. "That's more than my first house payment," she groaned. And yet the PR exec at the University of Michigan isn't about to ditch her daily commute of 72 miles from her home in a bucolic exurb of Detroit to Ann Arbor. "The pain point hasn't hit yet," she says. "Maybe we'll eat out less."
As pump prices reach record levels again this spring, American drivers show no sign of letting off the gas. Even with gas above $3 a gallon, gasoline consumption is expected to rise at nearly twice the rate of last year, according to the Energy Information Administration. Every day in America, drivers burn through 380 million gallons of gas, up 18 percent from a decade ago. This record guzzle rate is being driven by all our driving. On the road last year, all the odometers in America combined to turn over 3 trillion miles for the first time. That's nearly 15,000 miles for every driver on the road in 2006, up from 10,616 miles per driver back in 1982, federal highway statistics show. Our insatiable demand for petrol, combined with ill-timed refinery shutdowns, has left spring gasoline inventories at their lowest levels since 1956. And that's causing all this pain at the pump. "This caught oil companies by surprise," says oil analyst Phil Flynn of Alaron Trading. "People are shocked that demand is not going down with gas prices going up."
Why won't we stop guzzling? Part of the reason could be the generation behind the wheel. After the oil shocks of the '70s, our parents embraced the need to sacrifice and cut gas consumption by 12 percent between 1978 and 1982. These days, affluent boomers don't feel as much of a pinch at the pump since fuel costs make up 4.5 percent of the household budget, half what it was in the '70s. Back then, mom and dad parked the gas hog and started driving one of those new little economy cars. These days, boomers are switching from SUVs like the Ford Explorer, which gets 15mpg in the city and 21 on the highway, to modestly more fuel-efficient crossover utility vehicles like the Acura MDX (17mpg in the city; 22 on the highway). And hybrids, for all their buzz, still account for less than 2 percent of auto sales.
The one thing we do better than gulping gas: grouse about gas prices. There's even a viral Internet effort afoot to get drivers to boycott gas stations May 15 in hopes of hurting Big Oil. It won't, energy experts say. "That will be like the fat guy not eating Biggie Fries for a day," says energy analyst Tom Kloza. The best way to stick it to Big Oil—and get pump prices falling—is simply to stop buying so much gas. "Even if we all just gave up one gallon a month," says Kloza, "you'd be shocked at the impact that would have on prices." Fat chance, though. When it comes to kicking our oil addiction, we can't seem to put our motors where our mouths are.
© 2007
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