Democratic nominee for president Barack Obama turned his attention to climbing gas prices and the auto industry last week. Obama steered clear of any contentious comments – like telling would-be voters to stop driving their gas-guzzlers. He did, however, say that change was in the air.

From Reuters:

We've seen that this quarter. People are changing their behavior and we've seen a slump in the sales of SUVs and big trucks and a drastic spike in cars both medium size and small.

... [Car manufacturers] have done a better job of investment than they have in the past. There's still more work to do, and the federal government should help them do it

Obama has targeted fuel efficiency in past speeches and his comments indicate a will to increase federal standards if he's elected president.

As we've reported before, a focus on driving less will have a dramatically greater impact than better MPG. Obama seems to think so too; he's also come out in support of “greater bicycle and pedestrian usage of roads and sidewalks, and re-commit[ting] federal resources to public mass transportation projects across the country.”

Photo via flickr by LarimdaME.

Comments (2)

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obamaspoke said:

We created these spoke cards to instigate this very dialogue... i cant tell you how many times i have been stopped by people on the street... non- bike riders who comment on my spoke card... i then make sure they understand that Obama, like many others, is in favor of folks getting out of their cars... success... the spoke cards can be found at http://www.obamaspoke.com

June 09, 2008 | url

Joe said:

http://www.treehugger.com/file...e-ride.php

June 09, 2008 | url

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