Jeff Bingaman: “The truth is, the Republican leader has set up a totally false choice. He has indicated the choice is between what we…”

“The truth is, the Republican leader has set up a totally false choice. He has indicated the choice is between what we have now and, as he put it, this purple people eater that he has pictured. The reality is, the technology is there to keep the cars, the SUVs, the vehicles we now drive and shift them to being much more fuel efficient. The real choice is in the SUV that the Senator from Massachusetts has a picture of, which Ford Motor Company indicates they are going to have on the market next year. They say it is the same power as before, the same convenience as before, the same room as before, but it uses half as much gas. That is the option. We just need to step up to giving that challenge to the car dealers. When you look at why we are continuing to import more and more oil, it is very clear. The main reason is we have stalled out on improving efficiency in the motor vehicle sector.”