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You may feel like this letter is a flashback to 1970s, but I am writing you concerning our nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
This week oil prices are at almost $100 a barrel and more than $3 a gallon across the country. In June, when oil was around $65 a barrel, the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan energy bill that could help, increasing fuel economy standards for the first time in 30 years. That would save two-car families almost $700 a year.
The bill would also reduce our oil consumption by 1.2 million barrels a day – more than twice as much as we import from Iraq every day.
Increasing fuel efficiency standards would offer a long-overdue improvement.
It is for these reasons that nearly nine in 10 voters nationwide (86 percent) favor requiring the auto industry to increase fuel efficiency for cars, pickup trucks and SUVs.
But the House is slow to act, and might not have time to pass an energy bill that includes a meaningful fuel economy standard increase by the end of the year.
We need to tell our representatives to stand up for national security, our economy and American families, and pass the energy bill before the end of the year.