Clean Cars Would Save Texans over $5 billion at the Gas Pump This Summer

AUSTIN—As Texans brace themselves for skyrocketing gas prices, a new Environment Texas report finds that more fuel efficient cars would save every Texas family an average of $521 at the gas pump this summer alone. The report was released as the Obama administration is developing new fuel efficiency and global warming pollution standards for cars and light trucks.  

“Texans shouldn’t have to spend their summers worrying about how they will afford to drive, let alone whether their children are breathing air pollution, and whether their beaches are safe from oil spills. President Obama should take a bold step to solve all of these problems and put cleaner cars in the fast lane,” said Alejandro Savransky, Field Organizer at Environment Texas. This report shows that by helping consumers burn less oil, cleaner cars would mean we burn less cash too, saving Texans more than $5 billion in a summer. “Not only could you afford that roadtrip to the beach, but you could book a hotel and stick around for a week with the money you’ve saved,” said Savransky. 

Based on current gas prices, Texans are expected to spend almost $10 billion at the gas pump this summer.  Since no relief is in sight for the price of gas and our oil consumption continues to have dire consequences for our health and environment as well, Environment Texas pointed to reducing our dependence on oil as the only viable solution.

“The ordeal we’re facing at the pump is just one of the many consequences of our oil dependence – it threatens our economy, our environment, and our health,” said Savransky.  “The price that we pay at the pump is on top of the price of pumping toxic and global warming pollution into our air, and the price of risking our beaches to disastrous oil spills.” 

Requiring cars and trucks to meet a 60 mpg standard would be a major step toward getting off oil and decreasing pollution, reducing Texas’s oil consumption over the summer by about 1,3 billion gallons and reducing dangerous carbon dioxide pollution by more than 12,6 million metric tons.

Last year, recognizing the benefits of increasing fuel efficiency and decreasing our oil dependence, the Obama administration set standards for new cars and trucks built between 2012 and 2016 that will save billions of gallons of fuel. 

Today, Environment Texas called on President Obama to take the next step and move clean cars into the fast lane by making 60 miles per gallon cars the norm and not the exception to the rule.

“This summer, we should remember that clean cars could make our fun in the sun all that much better, creating huge benefits for Texas’s families, our economy and our environment,” said Savransky.  “We need the Obama administration to push ahead with the clean car standards that will make these benefits a reality.”