31 Mar 2004 Fact Checking The O’Reilly Factor

Posted at 10:54h in Environment and Enterprise Institute, Fuel Economy by

In his “talking points” editorial on Wednesday’s O’Reilly Factor show, Bill O’Reilly said: “We have failed to impose fuel standards on vehicles because auto companies don’t want that.”

First of all, we do have fuel standards on vehicles.

Second, those standards kill 2,000 Americans every year.

In 2002, the National Academy of Sciences released a report, “Effectiveness and Impact of CAFE Standards 2002,” pointing out that since CAFE standards were imposed in the U.S. in 1975, an additional 2,000 deaths per year can be attributed to the down-sizing of cars required to meet the fuel efficiency standards.

For more information or to take part in an online poll on the subject, visit The National Center’s Fuel Economy page.

I watch the O’Reilly Factor most evenings. Environmental issues are not his strong suit. A global warming “talking points” commentary from his show last year was an especially silly exercise.



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