Obama Administration Invests $300 Million in a Green Federal Fleet
The Obama Administration has met its goal to invest $300 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on fuel-efficient vehicles for the federal fleet. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced that it has ordered :
· 3,100 fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles for $77 million;
· 14,105 fuel-efficient vehicles including alternative-fuel and hybrid vehicles, for $210 million; and
· 35 hybrid electric buses, and one hybrid electric car for $12.4 million.
Most of the new vehicles will be in use by the end of this month, replacing older, less-efficient models in the federal fleet. By increasing the fuel efficiency of its fleet, the new vehicles will save an estimated 16.7 million gallons of fuel over the next seven years, which translates to 334 million less pounds of greenhouse gases emitted and a savings to taxpayers of at least $40 million in fuel costs.
US and China Co-Host First Electric Vehicle Forum
140 U.S. and Chinese officials met in Beijing at the first U.S.-China Electric Vehicle Forum to discuss progress in the electric vehicle industry and opportunities, concluded October The meeting highlighted the rapidly growing electric vehicle industry in China and the US (which are two largest auto markets and energy consumers, and together emit more than 40% of the world's greenhouse gases).
The meeting is the result of from growing U.S.-China collaboration on clean energy technologies. In July, the United States and China announced plans to develop a U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC) that will facilitate joint R&D on clean energy by bringing together teams of scientists and engineers and providing an information clearing house to help researchers in both countries. The CERC has identified clean vehicles as a priority for joint projects.
Show Me the Money: $2.4 Billion for NexGen Batteries and Electric Vehicles
48 new advanced battery and electric drive projects will receive a total of $2.4 billion under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The projects, which were selected through a competitive bidding process by the Department of Energy, will support U.S. manufacturing of batteries, electric drive components and electric drive vehicles. The dollar amount of the awards will be matched by the recipients and industry experts believe that the sum of $4.8 billion will create thousands of new manufacturing jobs in the U.S. battery and auto industries.
The awards were divided up as follows:
- $1.5 billion to produce batteries, battery components and to expand battery recycling capacity
- $500 million to produce electric drive components for vehicles
- $400 million to purchase thousands of plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles and charging stations.
Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program Update
June 23, 2009: the Obama Administration announced $8 billion in conditional loan commitments for Ford, Nissan and Tesla to support the development of innovative, advanced vehicle technologies. Ford Motor Company received a commitment of $5.9 billion to retool several to produce more fuel efficient models; Nissan received a commitment of $1.6 billion to retool their Tennessee factory to build advanced electric automobiles and an advanced battery manufacturing facility; and a commitment of $465 million was made to Tesla Motors to manufacture electric drive trains and electric vehicles in California.
These are the first conditional loan commitments reached as part of the Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program. The Department plans to make additional loans under this program over the next several months to large and small auto manufacturers and parts suppliers up and down the production chain with fuel-efficient technologies
Will California be Able to Regulate GHG Tailpipe Emissions?
The California Air Resources Board may soon get its wish. Back in 2005, ARB first requested a waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to allow California to regulate motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. EPA denied the waiver two years later, after California threatened to sue EPA to force the agency to take action on the request. The very day after President Obama's inauguration into office, ARB filed with EPA a request for reconsideration of its waiver request. Several days later, President Obama himself signed a Presidential Memorandum directing EPA to assess whether denial of the waiver was appropriate in light of the Clean Air Act. Last Friday, Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA, issued a Notice for Public Hearing and Comment on California's request for consideration of the previous waiver denial, which officially initiates reconsideration by EPA. Discussion at the public hearing on March 5, 2009 may get interesting, as the Notice's 'supplementary information' included a brief discussion on how the waiver denial had "significantly departed from EPA's longstanding interpretation of the Clean Air Act's waiver provisions and from the Agency's history, after appropriate review, of granting waivers to California for its new motor vehicle emission program." Stay tuned.
California ARB's request for a waiver is premised on the Clean Air Act provision that allows states to enact stricter motor vehicle emission standards than the federal government's, provided EPA has approved a waiver for the state to do so. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA must grant a waiver unless it finds that the state:
- was arbitrary and capricious in its finding that its proposed standards are in the aggregate at least as protective of public health and welfare as applicable federal standards,
- does not need such standards to meet compelling and extraordinary conditions, or
- has proposed standards not consistent with section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act.
In denying ARB's original waiver request, the EPA administrator at the time, Stephen Johnson, noted that President Bush had just signed an energy bill that would work to reduce emissions throughout the U.S. and that increased fuel economy standards. The energy bill increased fuel efficiency for new cars and light trucks by 40% by 202, to an average of 35 mpg. This is in fact the biggest increase by Congress in fuel economy standards since the program was created in 1975. As Johnson announced in December 2007, "The Bush administration is moving forward with a clear national solution, not a confusing patchwork of state rules." It's true that if the waiver is granted, California would enact a more stringent fuel economy standard than in any other state. But, 16 other states have pledged that if California can move forward with its higher standard, they would in turn adopt California's standard as their own.
