Cleaner vehicles, better transportation choices, and low-carbon fuels key to saving money under a strong climate bill from Congress

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Cleaner vehicles, better transportation choices, and low-carbon fuels key to saving money under a strong climate bill from Congress

Testimony by David Friedman, UCS Research Director and Senior Engineer, before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, I appreciate the opportunity to testify before you today. I am a research director and senior engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). UCS is a leading science-based nonprofit that has been working for a healthy environment and a safer world for 40 years.

I would first like to thank Chairman Markey for his leadership on the issue of fuel economy. As my testimony will show, there are many opportunities to take the transportation system much farther than the progress delivered under the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), but with your help we are now building on significant progress after two decades of stagnation.

As we look at where we must go from here, the draft bill that Mr. Waxman and Mr. Markey have presented for discussion today represents an essential next step. It opens the door to a much more comprehensive approach to the transportation sector, an approach that looks at transportation as a system, not just separate cars, fuels and infrastructure. Such an approach requires that we put policies in place that will address each of these areas in order to create a stable climate and transportation future.

The approach laid out in the draft bill will also require significant action by the administration. The Environmental Protection Agency will need to build on its solid foundation and take the lead on global warming standards for cars, light trucks, and freight trucks, as well as airplanes, rail, ships and off-road equipment. The EPA will also need to make a transition from a renewable fuel standard that covers only 10% of transportation fuels to a low carbon fuel standard that covers all transportation fuels and counts all direct and indirect emissions associated with those fuels. The Department of Transportation will have to build on their plans to help develop a smarter transportation system, working with state and local government to help get people where they need to go with fewer miles and less pollution. The Department of Energy will also play a key role in helping to get essential technologies out of the lab and onto our roads and rails. The administration will also have to protect and defend state authority to help bring about cleaner cars and fuels in recognition of both the unique circumstances in those states and the history of leadership on these issues from California and many others.

If Congress and the administration build on EISA and deliver on each of the three legs of the transportation system (vehicles, fuels, and efficient infrastructure), the results of the Union of Concerned Scientists Climate 2030 Blueprint analysis show that the United States can cut carbon emissions from cars and light trucks to 40% below 2005 levels while holding carbon emissions from freight trucks steady despite more than an 80 percent growth in the economy. By 2030, we can reduce our addiction to oil by more than 3 million barrels per day, and deliver annual savings of $120 billion to consumers and businesses ($580 per household per year and nearly $40 billion for businesses in 2030)—and this is all on top of the benefits that will be generated by EISA.

When you look at today’s economy and the prospect of rising gas prices and rising carbon emissions once we beat this recession, we simply cannot afford to ignore this opportunity to invest in a cleaner transportation future and the jobs that investment will create. Today, I would like to share with you amore in-depth discussion of the transportation components of our Climate 2030 Blueprint analysis. The full committee saw the big picture results of that analysis when Kevin Knobloch, our president, testified before you on Tuesday. I will first lay out the policy recommendations that form the basis of the Blueprint. I will then go into some of the detailed findings for the transportation sector. Finally, because it has come up as a potential component of this bill, I will include a discussion of key principles for how to make a “cash for clunkers” program work to help the auto industry and the environment.

Six steps for policymakers to deliver transportation system that reduces carbon emissions, saves money and cuts America’s oil addiction