Washington – This year’s presidential candidates are trying to get good mileage out of getting good mileage.
The candidates, who do a lot of talking about the need for greater energy efficiency, are not just asking who walks the walk but also, who drives the hybrid? Democratic candidate John Edwards makes a point of telling people that after years of driving a regular sport utility vehicle, he and his wife bought a hybrid model to shuttle their kids, strollers, toys, luggage and other stuff between Washington, D.C., and North Carolina.
Last month, Edwards announced his campaign would be “carbon-neutral,” meaning it will do what it can to limit energy consumption and then buy “carbon offsets” to counterbalance the emissions produced by the energy it does use.
Edwards is not the only White House hopeful trying to make his own energy use part of the political equation this year.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., says he usually drives a flex-fuel vehicle, which can run on gasoline or a cleaner-burning blend of ethanol and gasoline. But he acknowledges that sometimes it is not practical to fill up with the ethanol blend, known as E85.
“My campaign leases a flex-fuel vehicle,” he said in January, “but I’ll be honest with you, a lot of times you’re … 30 miles from the closest E85 pump. It’s going to cost you more to drive there and fill up than just filling up with regular gasoline.”
Republican Mitt Romney, the son of a former Detroit auto executive, announced his candidacy while standing in front of a hybrid Ford Escape, which averages 36 miles per gallon in the city, and an old Rambler from American Motors Corp.
Romney said his father, who once headed AMC, championed the small, practical Rambler as “the first American car designed and marketed for economy and mileage.”
There still is plenty of transforming yet to be done, though – both nationally and by the politicians themselves. Republican Rudolph Giuliani gave an energy policy speech in New York last summer that included a pitch for greater use of hybrid cars. Idling outside for him was a Cadillac Escalade. He did, however, opt to walk to his next destination rather than ride in the SUV, which averages 13 mpg, according to the government’s fuel-economy guide. His campaign refused to say what he is driving these days.
Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican candidate for president, drives a Cadillac CTS, which gets city mileage in the 15- to 17-mpg range.
Democratic candidate Bill Richardson, the New Mexico governor and former U.S. energy secretary, made a big show in 2005 of giving up his gas-guzzling SUV Lincoln Navigator for a hybrid Escape. A few months later, the 6-foot-2 governor ditched the hybrid for a flex-fuel Chevy Tahoe LTZ after deciding the Escape was too small for him and his entourage, including a security detail. The Tahoe averages 11 mpg in the city when using the E85 blend and 15 on gasoline.
