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
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
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
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
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.Continue Reading Will California be Able to Regulate GHG Tailpipe Emissions?