Contents:

1. Summary
2. Global Warming Pollution and Automobiles
3. Cool Fuels

Summary

Beyond helping pass the historic new fuel standards (read more here), Union of Concerned Scientists activists built support for landmark standards on global warming pollution from cars. Thirteen states, representing over a third of the U.S. auto market, have adopted clean car standards to reduce vehicle emissions. But on December 19, the Bush administration disregarded historical precedent, the Supreme Court, and advice from its own advisors, and denied the states the waiver they need to implement these crucial standards. We will continue to press the Environmental Protection Agency and the administration on this critical issue. Meanwhile, UCS launched a new Smart Bioenergy initiative to ensure the future of bio-based electricity and fuels moves in the greenest possible direction.

Global Warming Pollution and Automobiles

In mid-December, a federal judge threw out an auto industry challenge to California clean car standards. Federal District Court Judge Anthony Ishii rejected U.S. automakers' claims that federal law pre-empts the state standards which would more strongly regulate global warming pollution from vehicles. This represents “strike three” for the automakers, building on the April Supreme Court decision directing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate global warming pollution from vehicles, and the September Vermont court decision upholding states’ rights under the Clean Air Act.

This victory has added momentum for the adoption of the landmark clean car standards by California and 13 other states—including New Mexico, which just adopted the standards in November. UCS activists in New Mexico sent over 300 letters in support of the clean car standards, part of a record setting public comment period in the state. Nationwide, UCS activists sent over 16,000 letters to the EPA asking Administrator Stephen Johnson to obey the Clean Air Act and make a ruling on the waiver California and all other states need to implement the clean car standards.

Unfortunately, the Bush administration continued to stall on a decision all the way through the president’s signing of the increased fuel economy standards in the Energy Bill. As promised, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger initiated a lawsuit against the EPA in November. Now states besides California and the 13 other adopters are weighing in on both the standards and the waiver. For example, the state of Illinois, which hasn’t decided to adopt the standards, has joined California’s lawsuit against the EPA and has also joined in a letter signed by 16 attorneys general, including Iowa and Minnesota, demanding that Congress not attempt to legislatively stop states from considering the clean car standards.

On December 19, Administrator Johnson denied the clean car waiver, citing the Energy Bill's fuel economy standards as rationale. In doing so he rejected historical precedent, as no waiver of this kind had been rejected by the EPA since 1967, when California was granted the authority to establish regulations stronger than those made by the EPA. He also rejected the clear directives of Judge Sessions in Vermont, Judge Ishii in California, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Their decisions clearly indicated that the court considers fuel economy standards, meant to protect U.S. energy security, and global warming pollution standards, meant to protect the health and well being of the public, to be distinct standards.

This decision gave no legal basis for the EPA to reject California’s waiver petition. California Attorney General Jerry Brown promised a lawsuit at the earliest possible date. This was to be expected. Indeed the Washington Post reported that EPA's lawyers and policy staff had reached the same conclusion. In a PowerPoint presentation prepared for the administrator, aides wrote that if Johnson denied the waiver and California sued, "EPA likely to lose suit."

We will continue to press Administrator Johnson and the Bush administration on this critical issue. You can start by sending a letter to the EPA expressing your profound frustration with this short-sighted decision.

Cool Fuels

Bioenergy—electricity and fuels derived from plant or animal-based materials—is increasingly being touted as a key global warming solution. But to ensure we get the most environmental benefit from biofuels, we need to promote bioenergy policies that prioritize production methods and materials that produce the lowest amount of global warming pollution. On November 13, UCS released the first report of its “Smart Bioenergy” series, Biofuels: An Important Part of a Low-Carbon Diet.

The report evaluated two scenarios for alternative fuels, one carbon-intensive—meaning that it would produce significantly more global warming pollution than burning gasoline—and the other low-carbon—meaning that it would produce significantly less. The analysis assumed that alternative fuels will replace 37 billion gallons of gasoline, about 20 percent of the fuel UCS projects the United States will consume in 2030.

In both scenarios, conventional biofuels would meet 25 percent of the demand for alternative fuels. In the carbon-intensive scenario, the remaining demand would be met by liquid coal. The carbon-intensive scenario would increase heat-trapping emissions by 233 million metric tons—equivalent to adding about 34 million cars to the road, the number of new cars and light trucks currently sold nationally over a two-year period.

By contrast, the low-carbon scenario relies on advanced biofuels to meet the remaining 75 percent of the demand. That would cut global warming pollution by 244 million metric tons, akin to taking 35 million of today’s cars off the road. The report called for a national low-carbon fuel standard that accounts for global warming emissions over alternative fuels’ entire life cycle—from seed to sedan—and requires them to emit less pollution than today’s petroleum-based fuels.

This report formed the basis of the UCS Smart Bioenergy initiative—an effort to educate the public and policy makers on the importance of the UCS bioenergy prinicples, and the ways we can put them into action. UCS activists were introduced to this new effort last month, and asked to weigh in with their representatives in order to “save” the strong version of a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) passed by the recently signed Energy Bill. Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) passed a stripped-down version of this standard as part the Senate Food and Farm Bill. If passed, this version will ramp-up biofuels production, but with far weaker carbon-reduction targets and standards to ensure sustainable production than the standard created by the Energy Bill.

A strong RFS is only the beginning of our Smart Bioenergy efforts. As far as fuels are concerned, the RFS would ideally be complemented by a more comprehensive low-carbon fuel standard. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) passed an amendment onto a climate bill (Senators Joe Lieberman’s (I-VT) and John Warner’s (R-VA) America’s Climate Security Act) that would create a federal low-carbon fuel standard modeled after the one currently being developed in California. With both the promise and peril of this burgeoning area, UCS will use its science-based approach to ensure a green future for bio-based energy.