*waits patiently for tecumseh's prophesy to occur

[Guest guest]

The Bush administration is canceling a 2004 deadline for automakers to develop prototype cars that would get up to 80 miles per gallon and could be put into production within a few years. Department of Energy spokesman Joe Davis told Knight Ridder that the 2004 deadline for producing a prototype five-person "supercar" is dead. A month ago, the DOE announced a 28 percent cut in the program budget. The department is switching its focus from efficient family sedans to "longer-term technologies" that could be used in all kinds of vehicles, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham told Congress last week. Administration officials would not say which technologies would be emphasized. Energy Department officials and automakers will meet in Washington next week to go over the details of the changes in the supercar development program. Energy Department officials intend to kill or delay work on shorter-term research, including efforts to reduce vehicle weight, said Bob Culver, a Ford executive who is the executive director the United States Council for Automotive Research, the automaker consortium that oversees the program. "It's going to be painful," Culver said. "But I have no doubt we'll come out with a very strong program." Culver said the 80-mpg goal for a prototype "is somewhat moot" because while the program had met all its milestones, it was proving especially tough to meet the final one: getting the cost down to be competitive with that of normal cars. "It would have been very, very difficult for us to put an 80 mpg vehicle in the showroom at a comparable price to a conventional internal combustion vehicle you see in the showroom today," said Art Koby, who oversees business issues in General Motors' contribution to the supercar consortium. But Culver said it's a mistake to eliminate the short-term research, especially on developing lighter materials to help improve fuel efficiency. An independent review last year by the National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the program to develop highly fuel- efficient cars was making good progress. It said last year's concept cars "represent an outstanding industry effort." Energy Secretary Abraham, however, said the supercar program was too focused on one type of vehicle. When then- Vice President Al Gore championed the program in 1993, it was aimed at mid-sized sedans, but since then bigger sports utility vehicles have grown in popularity. New research should be broader throughout America's vehicle fleet, Abraham said. That's already happening. General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler all have announced that in the 2004 model year they will be using some supercar technology to build pickup trucks and SUVs that get better mileage. Ford's small Escape will nearly double mileage to 40 mpg, a potential fuel saving of 300 gallons of gas a year, Culver said. GM's full-size Silverado and Sierra in 2004 will have mileage improved by 15 percent. And DaimlerChrysler's mid-size Dodge Durango SUV in 2003 will have a 20 percent improvement in gas mileage, said DaimlerChrysler program manager Stephen Zimmer. Critics argue that keeping the 80-mpg goal is important with an energy crisis and high gas prices. "We were on the way to a supercar and now we're putting that kind of progress at risk at a potentially unfortunate moment when consumers are facing rising gas prices," said Dan Reicher, assistant secretary for energy efficiency during the Clinton administration. Daniel Lashof, a senior scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York-based environmental group, said the 80 mpg target "is a good goal and it's a huge mistake to continue funding for research and development and eliminate the performance goals." Environmental groups have attacked the program, saying it promoted the use of dirtier diesel fuel and gave automakers political cover for abandoning efforts to improve overall fleet fuel efficiency. They advocate increasing that fleet efficiency standard. The Bush administration won't decide what to do about the fleet fuel efficiency standards until a National Academy of Sciences report comes out this summer, Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday. The supercar program began in 1993, when General Motors, Ford and Chrysler joined forces with the federal government on a multibillion-dollar program to have production-ready and affordable supercars in 2004 that tripled the mileage of normal family sedans. Industry and government officials likened the goal of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles to sending a man to the moon. Last year the car companies reached a crucial milestone by producing expensive but fuel efficient concept cars. To date, the federal government has spent $1.4 billion on the program with more than 99 percent of that used for research in federal energy labs. Some environmental and watchdog groups have called the program "corporate welfare" because the government was funding research that otherwise would be paid for by the automakers. Individual auto companies won't say how much they spend on fuel efficiency, citing competitive reasons. But Culver said the three companies together spend about $1 billion a year on overall fuel efficiency research and development