Sierra Club has worked for a standard of 40 mpg for aut mobiles to be achieved over 1 ears, Since SUVs and light trucks represent nearly 50 percent of the market, Senators John Kerry and John McCain sought to replace the two standards with a single standard of 35 mpg to be achieved over 12 years. A principal component of the strategy of the environmental groups has been to em phasize the seriousness of the global climate change issue and recently to add the national security issue of the reliance on imported oil. In public politics environmentalists sought to increase constituent pressure on represent atives. The automakers countered by empha- sizing the revealed preferences of consumers for larger and more powerful vehicles and the dditional inj uries and fatalities that would result from downsizing vehicles to meet sharply higher fuel econoy standards, The stat us quo was advantaged in public politics, and the legislative efforts failed in 2002. After failing to achieve higher caFe standards in Congress, the Sierra Club turned to private politics It sought to mobilize the public against the aut makers refusal to improve he fuel economy of their vehicles. The Sierra Club began a three-year campaign to put public pressure directly on the big-three aut makers. As Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, explained "were going now to the customers. The Sierra Club hired Haddow Communications to conduct an advertising campaign challenging the aut omobile companies2 The radio ads specifically called on CEO Bill Ford, "Now more than ever America needs cars that get better gas mileage. That's why were asking Bill Ford, head of the Ford Motor Company, to do his part and to produce more fuel efficient, SUVs and pickup trucks” Separately, another group aired telev ision commercials arguing that buying an Suv supported terrorism and threatened national security by increasing the dependence on imported oil. News coverage of the activist campaigns increased the attention given to the issues As New York Times observed " the message is attracting attention through 2 Television spots feat ured former Nebraska senator Bob Kerrey and retired N admiral J ack Shanahan. In one ad Kerrey said, Its time for us to tell the auto industry hat we want to break the grip of oil- producing coumtries and reduce our oil use. " In another Kerrey stated, " We ask our young men and women to sacrifice their safety and perhaps their lives to fight the war against terrorism We all know that our dependency on imported oil is part of the problem and we know that increasing the fuel economy of the cars we drive is part of the solution.Sierra Club has worked for a standard of 40 mpg for automobiles to be achieved over 10 years. Since SUVs and light trucks represent nearly 50 percent of the market, Senators John Kerry and John McCain sought to replace the two standards with a single standard of 35 mpg to be achieved over 12 years. A principal component of the strategy of the environmental groups has been to em￾phasize the seriousness of the global climate change issue and recently to add the national security issue of the reliance on imported oil. In public politics environmentalists sought to increase constituent pressure on representatives. The automakers countered by empha￾sizing the revealed preferences of consumers for larger and more powerful vehicles and the additional injuries and fatalities that would result from downsizing vehicles to meet sharply higher fuel economy standards. The status quo was advantaged in public politics, and the legislative efforts failed in 2002. After failing to achieve higher CAFE standards in Congress, the Sierra Club turned to private politics. It sought to mobilize the public against the automakers’ refusal to improve the fuel economy of their vehicles. The Sierra Club began a three-year campaign to put public pressure directly on the big-three automakers. As Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, explained “we’re going now to the customers.” The Sierra Club hired Haddow Communications to conduct an advertising campaign challenging the automobile companies.2 The radio ads specifically called on CEO Bill Ford, “Now more than ever, America needs cars that get better gas mileage. That’s why we’re asking Bill Ford, head of the Ford Motor Company, to do his part and to produce more fuel efficient, SUV’s and pickup trucks.” Separately, another group aired television commercials arguing that buying an SUV supported terrorism and threatened national security by increasing the dependence on imported oil. News coverage of the activist campaigns increased the attention given to the issues. As The New York Times observed, “the message is attracting attention through 2 Television spots featured former Nebraska senator Bob Kerrey and retired Navy vice admiral Jack Shanahan. In one ad Kerrey said, “Its time for us to tell the auto industry that we want to break the grip of oil-producing countries and reduce our oil use.” In another Kerrey stated, “We ask our young men and women to sacrifice their safety and perhaps their lives to fight the war against terrorism. We all know that our dependency on imported oil is part of the problem and we know that increasing the fuel economy of the cars we drive is part of the solution.” 3