Obama Outlines Plans to Extend Fuel Economy and Emissions Rules Through 2025
By Scott Doggett May 21, 2010
President Obama announced plans today to extend federal auto fuel economy and emissions rules through 2025 and develop new regulations for large trucks, the Greenwire news service reported today.
The president also called for additional federal support for advanced automobile infrastructure, particularly for electric plug-in vehicles, and for increased regulation of non-greenhouse gas pollutants from motor vehicles.
Speaking in the Rose Garden, Obama touted the effort as an "essential part" of his overall energy and climate strategy and as a way to boost domestic manufacturing.
"The nation that leads in the clean energy economy will lead in the global economy, and I want America to be that nation," Obama said.
While the memorandum the president signed today instructs federal regulators to get down to work on the next round of passenger vehicle standards and the new rules for commercial buses and trucks, the order is short on details.
According to administration officials, the memorandum does not include specific miles-per-gallon targets for either the next round of auto standards or the new truck rules, Greenwire reported.
"We're at the starting gate here," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told reporters. "Stay tuned."
Under the plan, U.S. EPA and the Department of Transportation will start work on rules for passenger cars and light-duty trucks, which would go into effect for model year 2017 and take off where the last set of rules ends.
The two agencies would also expand the program to include medium- and heavy-duty trucks for the first time, beginning with model year 2014 and running through 2018. The agencies hope to finalize the truck rules by 2012.
The memorandum also directs EPA to reduce non-greenhouse gas pollutants from motor vehicles, including nitrous oxide, particulates and sulfur dioxide, and for the Energy Department to help boost development of electric vehicle infrastructure.
The announcement comes roughly a year after Obama brokered a compromise among automakers, environmentalists and states to clear the way for a first-ever federal greenhouse-gas emissions standard for passenger cars and trucks that was finalized last month.
That rule will also ramp up the fuel economy of the nation's passenger fleet to 35.5 mpg by 2016, four years ahead of the schedule Congress laid out in a 2007 energy law.
While the presidential memorandum instructs EPA and DOT to work toward model year 2025, by law, the administration can only set fuel economy rules for five model years at a time, making at least two separate rulemakings likely.
Federal regulators are required to issue rules at least 18 months before the model year being regulated hits dealer showrooms, meaning the 2017 standards would not have to be finalized until April 2015.
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Very appropriate and necessary. But I keep hoping that analysts, decisionmakers, and entrepreneurs will start to get an inkling that it's not just about 2017 and after, and that vehicles, like homes, offices and factories, are a part of the "built environment" that we can "fix."
We have 100 million large gas-guzzlers on the roads today; they'll stick around for a few decades; and we can do better than wait for new more efficient vehicles or spent over $50,000 to convert them to natural gas (still a fossil fuel with significant greenhouse gas emissions). These vehicles have room for batteries and can be turned into all-electric or plug-in hybrids, depending on their design and drive cycles.
Two years from now, when companies are making money doing this, it will be obvious. If only we didn't have to lose two more critical years! Once we (and Canada) start offfering incentives to converters for safe, driveable, validated conversions, at levels equivalent to those we're giving new plug-ins, i.e. $7,500, startups will be able to make the business case and get moving!
-- Felix Kramer, Founder, The California Cars Initiative -- see the rationale and some companies at http://www.calcars.org/ice-conversions.html
Felix, where does the money come from?
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