The new directives follow a previous mandate to set tougher emissions standards for cars and smaller vehicles. Credit: Bigstock

By Bryant Harris
WASHINGTON, Feb 19 2014 (IPS)

In an effort to reduce oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, President Barack Obama on Tuesday directed his administration to develop new fuel efficiency and emissions standards for trucks within the year.

The new directives follow a previous mandate to set tightened emissions standards for cars and smaller vehicles and encompass the president’s next step in trying to address U.S. emissions without needing to go through the U.S. Congress.

Speaking Tuesday, he made a point of touting the successes of his administration’s previous fuel-efficiency standards.

“Our levels of dangerous carbon pollution that contributes to climate change has actually gone down even as our production has gone up,” the president stated. “And one of the reasons why is because we dedicated ourselves to manufacturing new cars and new trucks that go farther on a gallon of gas — and that saves families money, it cuts down harmful pollution, and it creates new advances in American technology.”

Credit: UCS

The president did not stipulate any specific fuel efficiency standards that his administration wants to establish. Instead he noted that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation would have until March 2015 to develop a proposal for the newest round of fuel efficiency standards.

The new announcement constitutes the third round of Obama administration fuel efficiency standards, the second of which came into effect only last month.

The EPA and Department of Transportation have already implemented standards for model year 2012 to 2025 passenger vehicles and model year 2014 through 2018 heavy-duty trucks and buses. The latest regulations will be applicable to model years from 2018 and onwards.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), an advocacy group, anticipates that previously established fuel efficiency standards for trucks made between 2014 and 2018 will reduce oil consumption by 390,000 barrels per day in 2030. They will also cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 270 million metric tonnes.

“Oil is the biggest contributor to climate change emissions in the U.S.,” Don Anair, the research and deputy director of UCS’s Clean Vehicles Programme, told IPS. “The administration already finalised fuel-efficiency standards for cars, which are the biggest consumers of oil, and trucks are second only to those.”

Although trucks, busses and long-haul tractor trailers only comprise seven percent of traffic on U.S. roads, they account for more than 25 percent of oil used on the roads and contribute to about 20 percent of carbon pollution in the transportation sector. In total, motor vehicles emit a third of carbon pollution in the U.S.

“In terms of tackling the climate impacts of transportation, trucks are the next biggest thing, and we’ll have significant oil emission reductions,” Anair said.

UCS also foresees the new standards creating over 40,000 jobs by 2020 and over 70,000 a decade later.

In response to the president’s declaration, the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association (EMA), a trade association, indicated that it would continue to design more fuel efficient engines and vehicles.

“EMA and its members have a long and successful record of working cooperatively with … regulatory agencies,” said EMA President Jed Mandel. “Our past efforts have resulted in … lower greenhouse gas emissions and improved fuel efficiency from medium and heavy-duty diesel vehicles.”

Some advocates of greater efficiency have suggested that research and development funding could potentially be raised by ending tax breaks on oil companies.

“There is potential for investing those funds in technologies that we know we need for addressing our oil consumption, climate change impacts, and air pollution,” UCS’s Anair said. “Making those investments in the technology of the future rather than continuing to provide tax incentives for established industries makes a lot of sense.”

Indeed, Obama himself has repeatedly called on Congress to end these subsidies.

“We need to get rid of, I think, the 4 billion dollars in subsidies we provide to oil and gas companies every year at a time when they’re earning near-record profits,” the president noted in 2011, “and put that money toward clean energy research, which would really make a big difference.”

Global challenge

As the United States seeks to ameliorate carbon emissions through fuel efficiency standards, the Obama administration is also trying to encourage developing countries to lower their greenhouse gas emissions to ward off climate change.

On a visit to Indonesia on Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry urged the country to take a more active role in combating greenhouse gas emissions, going so far as to name it as big a security risk as terrorism.

“In a sense, climate change can now be considered another weapon of mass destruction, perhaps even the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction,” Kerry said in Jakarta.

Climate change poses a particularly acute risk to Indonesia, an archipelago composed of more than 17,000 islands, as higher temperatures melt glaciers and ice, causing the sea level to dramatically rise and putting many Pacific islands at risk.

“This city, this country, this region is really on the front lines of climate change,” Kerry said. “It’s not an exaggeration to say to you that your entire way of life that you live and love is at risk.”

Smog over Los Angeles, California. Credit: Steven.Buss/cc by 2.0

By Carey L. Biron
WASHINGTON, Mar 29 2013 (IPS)

Environmentalists and public health advocates are lauding a key, long-awaited proposal put forward by President Barack Obama’s administration that would require cleaner gasoline and more effective technologies on vehicles, cutting various harmful emissions by 40 to 80 percent.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which announced the long-delayed proposal here Friday, say the new regulations could avoid around 2,400 premature deaths and 23,000 cases of respiratory problems in children each year. A key component – lowering the sulphur content in gasoline by two-thirds – would be equivalent to taking some 33 million cars off the roadways, around one in eight.While the auto industry is saying they’re willing to help with these issues, the oil industry is saying they’re not willing to do their part.

If formally adopted following a public comment period, the new proposals, known as “Tier 3” standards, would go into effect by 2017. The EPA estimates that by 2030, the total health-related benefits from the new regulations could be as much as 23 billion dollars a year for the United States alone – a return of seven dollars for every dollar invested today, the agency says.

“These common-sense cleaner fuels and cars standards are another example of how we can protect the environment and public health in an affordable and practical way,” EPA acting administrator Bob Perciasepe said Friday.

“Today’s proposed standards – which will save thousands of lives and protect the most vulnerable – are the next step in our work to protect public health and will provide the automotive industry with the certainty they need to offer the same car models in all 50 states.”

Indeed, the car industry is a major proponent of the new regulations, in part because federal regulations are currently weaker than requirements in the state of California, thus forcing carmakers to offer differing vehicles. Last week, automakers met with the White House to press this point, calling the new standards “critically important”.

Advocates say the new EPA proposals adhere closely to the California standards. Both Japan and the European Union have already mandated similar sulphur levels in gasoline sold in those countries.

“This is the second grand slam from President Obama on clean cars – he has already put in place rules to double fuel economy, while this move will now dramatically reduce smog-forming pollution from cars,” David Friedman, deputy director of the Clean Vehicles Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a watchdog group, told IPS.

“Further, he is also finally telling the oil industry that it has to step up, too. It’s important to note that while the auto industry is saying they’re willing to help with these issues, the oil industry is saying they’re not willing to do their part.”

Penny a gallon

Advocates are seeing the new proposals as the first major environmental push of President Obama’s second term, following on lofty rhetorical pledges in recent months. Tightening regulations would also allow the president to begin delivering on those pledges without having to go through the U.S. Congress, where environmental issues remain contentious.

“With these expected cleaner tailpipe standards, President Obama is taking a strong step to protect our public health and secure his clean energy legacy,” Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, an advocacy group, said Friday. “Moving
forward with these clean air protections is a commonsense step to improve public health and clean up our cars, while holding Big Oil accountable for their polluting ways.”

The oil industry, which has long pushed against the delayed Tier 3 standards, has already indicated that it would continue to fight the proposals. On Friday, the American Petroleum Institute (API), a trade group, said current regulations were already working and warned that new requirements would result in significant cost increases for consumers.

“Implementing the new requirements would actually increase greenhouse gas emissions because of the energy-intensive equipment required to comply,” Bob Greco, an API official, said in a statement. “Unnecessary regulations just mean higher costs and lost jobs.”

While estimates commissioned by API suggest the new proposals would result in an increase of up to nine cents per gallon, the EPA says the costs would be far lower. In order to retrofit refineries, for instance, the agency says the new requirements will cost less than a penny per gallon, while new technologies will add about 130 dollars per vehicle by 2025.

“What I’m hearing oil companies saying is clearly meant to scare people away from clean air – their numbers are not backed by the science or data,” UCS’s Friedman says. “A penny a gallon would not even be likely to be passed on to consumers, but even if it were I’d be amazed if anyone noticed.”

Over the last decade, he points out, gas prices in the U.S. have doubled. Just in the first three months of this year, prices have spiked by 40 cents a gallon.

“That’s part of the reason the auto industry has gotten on board,” Friedman continues. “They got a big wake-up call over the past few years when gasoline prices spiked and the economy took a nosedive. Many of the car companies realised they weren’t putting out products that consumers needed to deal with the problems of the heavy gasoline use in this country.”

Overwhelming support

The oil industry remains an extremely strong lobby in Washington, however, and already politicians have begun staking out ground on both sides of the discussion. But according to a recent survey, the U.S. public already agrees with the stronger regulations by a broad margin.

In a January poll carried out the American Lung Association (ALA), respondents stated by two to one – 62 to 32 percent – that they strongly supported the EPA’s aim of pushing for cleaner gasoline and vehicles. On Friday, the association called on the EPA to implement the new regulations by the end of the year.

According to last year’s report on the state of U.S. air quality, the ALA found that more than 40 percent of people in the United States live in counties with pollution levels considered by the federal government to be too harmful to breathe.

Meanwhile, oil is the United States’ largest source of global warming-related emissions, with transportation responsible for around 70 percent of that oil use. According to UCS’s Friedman, carbon dioxide emissions just from U.S. light-duty cars and trucks rival those of the entire economy of India.