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As gas prices continue to skyrocket, Administration should stop dragging its feet on fuel economy standards

2008-07-01T22:24:52Z

As millions of Americans prepare to travel for the 4th of July holiday and as millions more stay home because they can’t afford skyrocketing gas prices, the Bush Administration is dragging its feet on increasing fuel economy standards while consumers pay the price.

Today is the deadline for public comments on the government’s proposed new rules to increase fuel economy standards. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is required to implement the fuel economy standards that Congress passed last year at the maximum feasible levels. Yet instead, they are undervaluing the price of oil and lowballing the American people.

The agency is forecasting that fuel will cost $2.42 a gallon by 2016, which most consumers would find laughable when considering the average of $4.09 a gallon they pay today. The agency is trying to justify weaker fuel economy standards, by severely underestimating the price of fuel.

Strong fuel economy standards are critical to helping consumers lower fuel costs, reducing our dependence on oil and curbing global warming pollution. Not only is it possible, but necessary to raise fuel economy standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2015. Automakers have the technology, they just need to put it to use. By reaching the minimum standard of 35 miles per gallon fleetwide by 2015, NRDC estimates that the U.S. would conserve 3 billion barrels of oil.

Cumulative Oil Savings in 2020

This 4th of July, the President should help make America more energy independent and save consumers money by taking high gas prices into account and raising fuel economy standards even higher.

Cool New Car Sticker Shows Which Are Cleanest

2008-05-08T18:08:59Z

Car shopping? Coming very soon in California is a handy new window sticker that makes it easy to choose the cleanest vehicles. It’s terrific in its simplicity; each car, SUV, minivan or pickup will get a 1-10 score on the basis of global warming and smog pollution. Go for the high score (this isn’t golf) and you’ll be driving home in a clean vehicle.

The new Environmental Performance label, which will be on new vehicles starting in January, shows the Global Warming Score and Smog Score side-by-side. No tricky math for you do since the California Air Resources Board, which designed the label, breaks down technical emissions data into simple blocks. Also shown is the average score for all vehicles of that new model year, so you’ll know how each car in a showroom compares to the overall new vehicle fleet. Want to comparison shop before visiting showrooms? The Environmental Performance label points you to www.DriveClean.ca.gov, which will list the scores of all new vehicles for sale.

I like that the label is also a money-saver. Choosing a high Global Warming Score saves money at the pump because high-scoring vehicles are typically the most fuel efficient.

Not in California? Other states, like Pennsylvania, have already said they will adopt the Environmental Performance label. Until your state adopts the label, you should check out US EPA website www.fueleconomy.gov; it allows you to compare new and used vehicles side-by-side in terms of carbon footprint and smog pollution.

Happy shopping.

California Tells Automakers to Bring Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles to the Showroom

2008-03-30T21:21:37Z

Tens of thousands of plug-in hybrid vehicles will start hitting the roads in 2012 due to last Thursday’s decision by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). In an update of the Zero Emission Vehicle program, CARB established plug-in hybrids as an important enabler of vital zero-emission technologies because of their electric drive trains and advanced batteries. According to CARB staff, approximately 58,000 plug-in hybrids will be placed in California from 2012 to 2014 where none were previously required.

Also, ten other states have adopted California’s Zero Emission Vehicle program, which means the number of plug-in hybrids nationally will be approximately 2.3 times the California requirement, or 133,000.

As I mentioned in a previous post automakers have been touting their plug-in hybrid demonstration vehicles; CARB’s action locks in a commitment to actually put these vehicles in the hands of consumers.

As plug-ins arrive in showrooms, consumers will likely snatch them up. While getting off oil feels good, it can also make sense for the wallet. The per-mile cost of driving a plug-in hybrid with 20 miles of all-electric range is about half as much as conventional vehicle. If you do most of your commute or errands on electricity alone, then the per-mile cost is cut in half again. The savings in gasoline costs offset the up-front cost for larger, more advanced batteries. I realize that many consumers struggle to compare lifetime operational savings with the higher sticker price at the showroom, but gasoline approaching $4.00/gallon certainly motivates people to work out the math.

The CARB requirement kick-starts commercialization of plug-in hybrids. However, complementary policies can accelerate the pace of their broad, mass market appeal and availability. For example, federal consumer incentives such as tax credits have helped propel traditional hybrids into the marketplace, and Congress has introduced legislation to give credits for plug-in hybrids to help overcome the incremental battery cost. Additional policies that speed retooling of auto manufacturing toward electric-drive technologies will promote larger-scale production and drive down costs further.

I’m already looking forward to visiting showrooms in the near future to check out the new cars and see how you plug them in.

Plug In for Clean Air

2008-02-27T01:24:06Z

As someone who has been enthusiastically watching and promoting plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, I was concerned that the headline of an article in USA Today (“Plug-in cars could actually increase air pollution,” Feb. 26) could lead to misperceptions about the environmental benefits of plug-in hybrid vehicles. The fact is that plug-ins are an important opportunity for reducing pollution.

Plug-in hybrid vehicles, which run part time on electricity supplied from power plants, are an extremely promising technology for reducing global warming pollution. Compared to conventional vehicles and today’s non-pluggable hybrids, they can run cleaner and use less gasoline, which helps reduce global warming pollution, slash oil dependence and save Americans money at the pump.

The environmental benefits of large-scale plug-in hybrid deployment have been detailed in Environmental Assessment of Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles a comprehensive study jointly authored by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and NRDC (executive summaries of report: Volume 1 | Volume 2). The EPRI-NRDC report is especially relevant because it considers the evolution of the grid toward cleaner generation due to carbon constraints and existing regulations that tighten select criteria pollutant controls in the future. It evaluates the complex mix of generation resources used for vehicle charging in concert with rapid penetration of plug-ins into the market, and the study shows that plug-in hybrids reduce global warming pollution and provide modest, widespread air quality benefits.

Like many technologies, you can use plug-ins in the right way or the wrong way. Charging plug-ins with dirty coal power is the wrong way; these carbon-intensive sources make it harder for both the electric sector and transportation sector to meet our long-term global warming goals. Heavy reliance on the dirtiest technologies can also lead to localized increases in certain criteria air pollutants, such as particulate matter, also known as soot. Many of NRDC’s advocacy efforts are focused on preventing the wrong path: we are fighting against continued use of dirty coal generation, and we promote policies that encourage a cleaner grid mix.

The USA Today article focuses on the worst-case scenario where the oldest, dirty coal plants are the sole source of electricity for vehicle charging. Typically, this is not the case; the electricity grid is a mix of generation technologies that includes coal along with cleaner energy sources. Overlaying the mix, regulations cap the criteria pollutants that are primary contributors to smog and acid rain (including oxides of nitrogen and sulfur dioxide), and therefore electricity producers cannot increase these emissions in their efforts to meet the increased energy demanded from plug-in hybrids. Existing laws tighten these cap levels over time forcing power plants to get cleaner.

We already have a road map for the right way to deploy plug-in vehicles. As soon as the vehicles are ready for the market, they should be introduced in large numbers across the nation in areas where the public is assured that plugging in will not lead to localized air pollution problems. We need to also keep improving the efficiency of these and other vehicles, so we continually reduce fuel demand by maximizing fuel economy (both miles per gallon and miles per kilowatt-hour). Simultaneously, we should follow examples for controlling global warming pollution from electric sector set by California (AB32 Global Warming Solutions Act and SB1368 Greenhouse Gas Performance Standard) and the Northeast states (Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative).

So let’s get started. It takes nearly fifteen years to turnover the fleet of vehicles on the road, and power plants can live for fifty years or more. Deploying plug-in vehicles smartly will put us on the path of clean, electrified transportation.

Plug-ins: The Next Generation of Hybrids

2008-01-14T21:07:47Z

Yesterday, giant automaker Toyota released some very hopeful news about the availability of advanced batteries to power plug-in hybrid vehicles. At the annual North American International Automobile Show, Toyota Motor Corporation’s CEO Katsuaki Watanabe announced that beginning in 2010 the company will deliver “a significant fleet” of plug-in hybrid demonstration vehicles running on lithium batteries for use by fleet customers. He further remarked that Toyota is in the planning phase of an expansion of their current hybrid battery supplier, Panasonic EV, to include a lithium battery production line.

Plug-in hybrids are the next generation of hybrids. The key enabling technology of these vehicles is the advanced battery and Toyota’s plan to roll-out vehicles and build battery production lines is important because the company appears serious about taking the next step with their hybrid technology.

To be considered a green technology leader, automakers need plug-in hybrids in their lineup. Plug-in hybrids are a critical component of a sustainable transportation future that gets us off oil and reduces emissions. Driving a plug-in charged with renewable energy emits only as much global warming pollution as a 74 mpg car. (See more details in this NRDC factsheet.)

While Toyota and GM, which has been heavily promoting its Chevy Volt, are seeking positive press with their plug-in announcements, they are also doing some of the work necessary to meet future regulations in California’s Zero Emission Vehicle Program. A proposal to update the ZEV program will require the six largest automakers to produce thousands of plug-in hybrids annually starting in 2012.

Just getting plug-ins on the road doesn’t finish the job, however. We also need clean fuels, which means clean grid electricity for plug-ins. California is a great place for plug-in hybrids because the grid on average emits about half as much heat trapping greenhouse gases per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced than the national average. Also, the story gets better over time because California has the policies in place to keep making the grid cleaner including a cap on global warming pollution emissions, renewable portfolio standards, and power plant performance standards that block expansion of dirty coal generation.

Nationally, wide-scale adoption of plug-in hybrids can provide significant reductions in global warming pollution if the grid cleans up. NRDC collaborated with the Electric Power Research Institute on a comprehensive study that found that a vehicle fleet of predominantly plug-ins charged from a very clean grid could reduce transportation global warming pollution by more than 600 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent annually by 2050, which has the same effect of taking 110 million cars off the road.

When not running on electricity, plug-in hybrids should be fueled with biofuels. A‘flex-fuel’ plug-in hybrid could allow Americans to eventually kick the oil habit entirely and reduce emissions further. It will take time to reach this vision, however. The vehicle fleet turns over slowly (and the power sector even more slowly), so we need to start putting clean plug-ins hybrids on the road today. That brings us back to batteries.

Toyota and GM are consistent in their remarks about lithium battery prospects: producing affordable, long-lasting automotive batteries still has engineering challenges, but they don’t need to wait for new technology inventions. I’m hopeful that engineers can soon deliver batteries that will make plug-in hybrids a real possibility for all drivers, and I will be convinced when I see them in the showroom.