"What Would Jesus Drive?": Campaign Steering Americans In Wrong Direction

Washington, D.C., November 20, 2002—Is driving a sport utility vehicle a sin?  As a coalition of religious groups begins its campaign promoting that message, the Competitive Enterprise Institute is defending Americans’ freedom of choice [2] in choosing what cars they drive.

“The National Council of Churches and other religious groups talk about the immorality of driving an SUV and want higher federal fuel economy standards.  But if there’s any immorality here, it’s in the fuel economy program itself.  That program kills thousands of people each year by forcing vehicles to be downsized and therefore less crashworthy,” says Sam Kazman, CEI’s general counsel.  “So in reality the issue here is about the sanctity of human life.  From a moral standpoint, these people couldn’t be more mistaken.”

CEI has worked on the fuel economy standards [3] issue for over a decade.  In 1992, Mr. Kazman won a federal appeals court ruling against the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration for concealing the lethal effects of the federal government’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program.

Fuel Economy Expert Available for Interviews

Sam Kazman<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

General Counsel

202.331.1010, ext. 214

skazman@cei.org Recently seen and heard: Connie Chung Tonight (CNN), Hardball with Chris Matthews (MSNBC), The Economist, and The Wall Street Journal.

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website at www.cei.org [4].