SUV

Introduction

They are everywhere. You can find them every place from traffic jammed city streets to barren rural back roads. They are large, boxy, and not very hard to miss. Since the early 90's, sport utility vehicles have taken the place of the traditional station wagon as the most popular vehicle for the suburban mom. These vehicles have essentially changed our nation's highways. SUV's are categorized by the government as light trucks, which are held to less stringent fuel-efficiency and safety standards than cars ("Fact Sheet"). They may have roomy interiors, rugged appearances, and high off the ground seating, but they are also gas-guzzling, turnover-prone giants that spew out pollutants and endanger the occupants of smaller cars. They have become an icon for American over indulgence. SUV's need drastic changes in fuel efficiency and safety standards before money conscious consumers should invest in them.

Are SUV Dangerous?

Vehicles are classified as LTV's, light trucks and vans, by the NHSTA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, if they weigh between 10,000 and 5,000 gross pounds (Cooper). Included in the LTV group is pickup trucks, vans, minivans, truck-based station wagons, and sport utility vehicles. Comprising only fifteen percent of the new vehicle sales during the 1970's, LTV's, mostly pickups and cargo vans, were mainly used by small businesses and farmers for work related use. Because of this fact, Congress set a more lenient mileage standard for these vehicles, which is currently 20.7 miles per gallon, as opposed to the 27.5 miles per gallon required of passenger cars (Cooper). Also, LTV's are exempt from a gas-guzzler tax, a levy imposed on the sale of new vehicles whose fuel economy falls below 22.5 miles per gallon. Light trucks now account for almost half of all new vehicles sold, and in fact, 40 percent of U.S. households have a sport utility vehicle in their garage ("Halliday").

Today's average new car gets approximately 28 miles per gallon. Most SUV's get less than 20 miles per gallon, with some of the most popular models getting only 14 to 15 miles per gallon. More than half the oil Americans consume is imported. The more America imports, the greater the dependence on foreign sources, as well as more carbon dioxide emissions, which is considered a primary cause of global warming. The U.S. is the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, which mostly comes from the burning of transportation fuels ("Environmental Concerns"). Because SUV's typically burn more gas than cars, they emit higher levels of carbon-dioxide into the atmosphere than most other vehicles.

"Being dependent on others for the natural resources that we don't have when we use a disproportionate share of those resources causes problems for the United States. I believe the war we just fought in Iraq had something to do with oil. A bunch of U.S. soldiers just died, and a bunch of Iraqis died, too, in part because we needed to secure oil for SUVs," said Dan Becker, the director of the Sierra Club, an environmental organization that provides information about ...