Clean Vehicles Update - Winter 2009
Contents:
- Summary
- Automaker Assistance & Cleaner Cars
- Global Warming Pollution and Automobiles
- Green Travel
- California Clean Trucks Campaign
- The Clean Car Discount and California Global Warming Plan
- California State Ballot Measures
Program Updates
Clean Energy
Clean Vehicles
Food & Agriculture
Global Warming
Invasive Species
Nuclear Weapons & Global Security
Scientific Integrity
Summary
In December, the Detroit automakers went to Capitol Hill for an emergency influx of cash, and UCS was called in to testify. We played a key role in encouraging Congress to link any U.S. auto industry financial assistance to increased fuel standards. UCS activists supported Environmental Protection Agency scientists as they worked to regulate global warming pollution and pushed Florida to take a significant step forward in adopting state clean car standards. UCS also released a new report giving consumers key information to help green their travel plans. And in California, officials enacted landmark new protections to reduce pollution from heavy-duty diesel trucks while voters approved a high speed rail ballot initiative and rejected a misguided ballot measure on fuels and energy.
Automaker Assistance & Cleaner Cars
The last months of 2008 were dominated by the souring economy’s effect on Detroit automakers. With their dwindling market share compounded by a significant drop in overall vehicle sales, General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford came to Washington asking for tens of billions of dollars in assistance to avoid bankruptcy, or worse.
As Detroit automakers came to Capitol Hill, so did UCS. In November, Clean Vehicles Program Washington Representative Eli Hopson warned Congress that “If American taxpayers are going to support the automakers they deserve a return on their investment. Congress should require automakers to produce the cleaner cars that are key to their future success.” UCS Research Director David Friedman was then asked to testify along side automaker CEOs at a House Financial Services Committee hearing on the issue. Friedman strongly advocated that Congress should link any U.S. auto industry financial assistance to vehicle performance standards that will provide a return on taxpayer investment, strengthen the industry, curb U.S. oil dependence, and help prevent the worst consequences of global warming.
Members of the House of Representatives responded to UCS, most notably by seeking to make any fiscal assistance conditional on the automakers dropping all efforts to block the state clean car standards now adopted by 13 states and the District of Columbia. Issues beyond emissions standards have conspired to thwart a legislative compromise between the House and Senate, leaving the future of government assistance to the Detroit Three in considerable doubt, though some assistance will likely come directly from the Bush Administration.
Global Warming Pollution and Automobiles
In 2007, the Supreme Court found that carbon dioxide—one of the main contributors to global warming—qualifies as a pollutant that can be regulated under the federal Clean Air Act. In response, staff scientists and policy experts at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) drafted a preliminary plan to tackle this urgent issue, focusing on both stationary sources (such as power plants) and the cars we drive. Unfortunately, in an attempt to further delay action to rein in global warming, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson undercut his own staff, bashing their laudable efforts in an added introduction.
Implementing this plan will ultimately be in the hands of the next administration, which made this a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate public support for making climate change and protecting the work of government scientists a priority come January 2009.
UCS and its activists were extremely active in ensuring that the EPA scientists and policy experts responsible for moving forward on this vital rulemaking were given full public support. UCS worked with our allies to develop a set of detailed comments on the proposed options for regulating the various sectors, with UCS Washington Representative Eli Hopson and Senior Analyst Jeremy Martin leading efforts on the cars and fuels sectors. More than 10,000 UCS activists backed them up with comments of their own, commending EPA staff for moving forward on this issue, and urging that regulating global warming pollution under the Clean Air Act be a top priority for the agency next year.
One of the most crucial early steps the next administration can take to curb global warming pollution from the transportation sector is to grant the waiver states need to implement the clean car standards now adopted by 13 states and the District of Columbia. UCS is continuing its efforts to help expand these standards across the country, and progress continues to be made.
In October, Florida’s Environmental Regulatory Commission (ERC) met to decide whether or not to recommend that the state legislature adopt the clean car standards—a crucial step toward bringing more than 40 percent of the nation’s entire auto market under these strong regulations. More than 500 UCS activists wrote directly to the ERC, telling members that Floridians cannot wait any longer for cleaner cars, prompting a “Wow!” from the Florida Department of the Environment’s liaison to the ERC. After an initial delay, the ERC finally voted to recommend the clean car standards on a 6-1 vote on December 2.
Green Travel
Just in time for the holiday travel season, UCS released a new consumer resource, Getting There Greener: The Guide to Your Lower-Carbon Vacation. The report and associated online resource center give consumers a first-of-its-kind look at the carbon comparisons among travel options based on number of people traveling, distance, and mode of travel.
Getting There Greener offers both a useful one-page reference chart, and more detailed information, so travelers can get the best environmental “bang for their buck” whether by choosing a different mode of transportation, or looking more closely at their options within a particular mode. The report received acclaim from the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA). Chris Russo, ASTA president and chair, noted that, “This guide is a useful tool for travel agents looking for hard data on the carbon cost of various types of travel. By utilizing this data, travel agents are better equipped to assist those clients wishing to reduce the carbon imprint of their vacations.”
For green-minded consumers looking to give this valuable information to friends and family, UCS has even created a holiday season-themed pledge and e-card campaign to help spread the word.
California Clean Trucks Campaign
After months of pressure by UCS, our supporters, and a statewide coalition of health, environmental, and community groups, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted in December to pass two new rules that will dramatically reduce toxic emissions and global warming pollution from big-rig trucks that operate in the state.
CARB's first proposal will boost fuel efficiency in heavy-duty trucks to reduce their global warming emissions. The main target is the most common type of truck on the highway: a 53-foot-long trailer pulled by a large tractor. The rule will save 1 billion gallons of diesel fuel annually across the country in 2020, and up-front costs of installing fuel efficient technology on tractors and trailers will be offset by reduced fuel costs over time.
CARB's second proposed rule, controlling smog-forming emissions and particulate matter, targets all diesel-fueled heavy-duty trucks operating on California's roads, including typical big-rig trucks and school buses. CARB estimates the rule will prevent 9,400 premature deaths and thousands of hospitalizations for heart and lung disease associated with poor air quality over the next 15 years and will save tens of billions in health care costs.
In the months leading up to the ruling, UCS Senior Vehicles Analyst Don Anair authored a report analyzing the potential for reducing fuel use and global warming pollution from trucks as well as a series of fact sheets on both rules. Anair also briefed CARB staff and board members on his findings and testified at the agency’s public hearing on the rules. At the request of UCS, a number of prominent scientists and physicians sent a letter to CARB urging the board to adopt the rules. In addition, UCS activists collected hundreds of signed postcards to CARB and widely circulated our online petition, resulting in nearly 7,000 signatures in support of the rules.
Despite the landmark improvements in the new truck rules, there is still work to be done. UCS analysis shows there is much more to do to improve the fuel efficiency of heavy-duty trucks. UCS experts will explore options for seeking greater reductions in the pollution that causes global warming, while at the same, working to ensure that the diesel standards to protect public health are effectively implemented without delay.
The Clean Car Discount and California Global Warming Plan
In its newly adopted scoping plan to implement AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) made a solid commitment toward cutting the global warming pollution from vehicles. CARB confirmed that they will implement a Clean Car Discount, or “feebates,” program if the state’s global warming standards for vehicles—the Pavley clean car standards—are blocked by the federal government or the courts. The Clean Car Discount would make cleaner cars and trucks more affordable for all Californians by establishing one-time rebates and surcharges on new passenger cars and light trucks based on the amount of global warming pollution they emit.
UCS led the campaign for feebates, delivering testimony and analysis, organizing broad-based sign-on letters, and submitting hundreds of postcard comments collected by UCS activists. CARB also committed to commission an expansive study of the complementary role a Clean Car Discount program could play in tandem with the clean car standards. UCS experts will continue to work with CARB and the state legislature to enact an innovative feebates program for California residents.
California State Ballot Measures
Based on our thorough analysis, UCS came out against Proposition 10, which would have thrown nearly ten billion taxpayer dollars into a program promoting natural gas and other transportation fuels that could have achieved little or no reductions in smog or global warming pollution. Fortunately, voters did their homework and defeated the misguided propostion.
On a more positive note, UCS supported Proposition 1A, which passed and will start funding for construction on a California high-speed train system. Once built, the train system is expected not only to ease growing automobile and plane traffic, but most importantly, to reduce emissions of global warming pollution and save energy overall.
Throughout the election season, UCS kept voters informed, with our experts appearing in public debates and in the media, and with frequent alerts to UCS activists.
