March 13, 2003
CONTACT: Nicole Halpern, Thoreau Center for Sustainability, San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 717-4183

SOCCER MOMS CELEBRATE SUCCESS ON FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF NATIONAL "DON’T BE FUELED!" GAS-ROOTS CAMPAIGN

Initiative Fueled By Record High Gas Prices

BAY AREA MOMS GATHER THOUSANDS OF SIGNATURES DEMANDING AUTOMAKERS ACCELERATE PRODUCTION OF FUEL EFFICIENT AND SAFER VEHICLES AND HOLD MEETINGS WITH HIGH LEVEL OFFICIALS FROM GENERAL MOTORS AND FORD

SAN FRANCISCO – One year ago over 75 Bay Area moms marched on San Francisco’s Marina Green with picket signs to launch their drive for better fuel economy and safer vehicles. The organization, Don’t Be Fueled! Mothers for Safe and Clean Vehicles (DontbeFueled.org) puts Moms in the driver seat to increase supply and demand for more family-friendly and less polluting models and SUVs that are less prone to rollover and have better braking and maneuverability.

"Consumers assume that Detroit’s "Big 3" automakers are busy converting many models to hybrid versions of mini-vans, station wagons and SUVs – they are not" said Betsy Rosenberg, co-founder of the campaign. "Although Ford, Lexus and Toyota are each coming out with a hybrid SUV for 2005 they are expected to get less than 40 mpg (compared to the 45 -80 mpg range for smaller hybrids currently being sold by Toyota and Honda. GM has put the brakes on its hybrid schedule and none of the car companies is known to be planning hybrid (gas-electric combination) wagons or vans."

"When I learned there is nothing in the works for a luxury non-SUV hybrid sedan by any of the American-based automakers I was livid", says Jodi Upjohn, a mother from Tiburon who recently joined the campaign. So too was Sarah Schwartz, a Mill Valley mother of two who is waiting for a hybrid mini-van. "With gas prices going through the roof, we need more fuel-efficient choices and I’d assumed they were in the works across the board".

Formation of the organization goes back to March 13, 2002 after Senators John Kerry and John McCain led a post-9/11 drive to increase CAFÉ (mileage) standards as an amendment to the energy bill. This effort was defeated in congress, to the shock of many Americans (and newspaper columnists) who were at the same time hearing the Bush administration call for drilling in the Arctic Refuge due to the urgent need to get off foreign oil. The higher mileage standard proposed would have saved 2.5 million barrels of oil a day. Its defeat so shocked and angered Betsy Rosenberg, an environmental radio host and producer, that she set out to see if anyone else felt the same.

"I quickly found other Bay Are Moms who were equally concerned and outraged about the issue, many of them driving smaller hybrid cars already", said Rosenberg who traded in her SUV two years go for Toyota Prius. That shift in vehicle changed my carma and my life – in light of what our country was facing at the time, those overlapping developments turned me into an activist and the seeds of our gasroots campaign were planted".

Two years later, organizers have an active group of around 100 women and the campaign has collected over 3,000 signatures demanding better vehicle options from Detroit and more leadership on reducing oil dependence from DC. DBF Moms have met with executives from General Motors, Ford and Toyota and were credited by GM as being one of the factors in it’s decision to withdraw opposition to ZEV (zero emissions vehicle legislation in California). Mothers and friends of DBF have also marched in local parades, protested outside of Hummer dealerships and have spoken to community groups around the Bay Area and nation.

In addition, the Don’t Be Fueled! Campaign hosted four outreach events in it’s first year, including a talk by Keith Bradsher, author of "SUVs: The World’s Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way". The New York Time correspondent is one of premier experts on SUV safety and environmental threats.

The DBF Campaign has been featured in newspaper articles (SF Chronicle, Marin IJ, The Ark) and in radio and television interviews too numerous to list here. If you’d like to do an anniversary story on this timely and locally-based campaign or cover a new angle on the high gas prices story, please contact:
Nicole Halpern at (415) 561-2165 or Betsy Rosenberg at (415) 717-4183.

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