In partnership with the Sierra Club, MEC carried the banner for clean car technology at January's North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Cultivating the next generation of car buyers while promoting the next generation of clean cars, the two groups opened eyes to the value of fuel-efficient technologies.

These two groups jointly organized the Clean Car Roundup, a children's activity featuring a search for cars on display at the Auto Show that excel in gas mileage. The game card included math and word puzzles. The goal was to provide kids and their families with a fun way to learn about the benefits and availability of fuel-efficient technologies. The game underscored the importance of teaching young people to think critically about the impacts of major purchasing decisions years before they ever walk into a dealer showroom. Players were invited to submit their answer cards to MEC for a prize drawing.

The Clean Car Roundup was developed around a western theme to leverage ties with a colorful character, Wyatt Earp. The OK Corral gunslinger has a descendant of the same name living in Florida. The present-day Mr. Earp works for the Marion County Sheriff's Department. He purchases cars for the departmental fleet and prefers hybrids. A picture of Earp standing boldly in front of a sheriff's Toyota Prius is featured on the Clean Car Roundup activity card. The contest winner will receive a trip to Florida to meet Wyatt. After riding with him in a hybrid police car, the lucky winner will spend a day at Disney as part of the prize.

The Clean Car Roundup attracted valuable print, radio and television press on the issue of fuel efficiency. To help generate the attention, MEC was assisted by Derek Camponi, a nine-foot-tall cowboy (on stilts, of course) who greeted visitors and journalists outside Cobo Hall. MEC and Sierra Club promoted gas-electric hybrid vehicles and other existing technologies, such as the continuously variable automatic transmission, the variable-valve-control engine and the integrated starter-generator. The groups celebrated these industry victories while challenging auto companies to offer these fuel-saving techniques in vehicles of all sizes and models.

MEC's presence at this year's Auto Show was felt in a more fundamental way. It has been a key member of the environmental community calling for more fuel-efficient vehicles that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Other groups have also begun to weigh in on the impacts of excessive gas consumption, linking it to such issues as public morality (i.e., What Would Jesus Drive?), the War on Terror (i.e., Detroit Project shock ads against SUVs) and concern about fuel prices in the midst of a weak economy.

Taken together, these varied arguments demonstrate a growing national consensus that the auto industry must deliver better fuel performance. More efficient models have been promised, most notably by GM, which announced at the Auto Show a plan to sell up to a million hybrid vehicles by 2007. Building on this momentum, MEC and its allies will continue to seek increased automobile fuel efficiency.