State Emissions LawState may sue the agency if waiver not granted. ARLINGTON, VA (May 23, 2007) - A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) panel chaired by Margo Oge, director of EPA's office of Transportation and Air Quality, held the first of two hearings earlier this month to hear a request from the state of California to allow it to impose the nation's strictest controls on tailpipe emissions. California needs the EPA waiver to implement its 2002 emissions law, which requires automakers to cut emissions by 25 percent from cars and light trucks and 18 percent from sport utility vehicles starting with the 2009 model-year. The law will require automakers to spend billions of dollars to bring their vehicle fleets to 40 mpg on average within the next decade. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Facts * According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, within the scope of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States, California has the largest impact of any state.
* U.S. autos account for about 20 percent of total U.S. GHG emissions and for about 5 percent of total global GHG emissions.
* California is the world's 12th-largest producer of GHG emissions.
* California's 32.5 million vehicles produce 40 percent of the state's GHG emissions.
* California has the worst air quality in the United States.
(Source: EPA) While the federal government typically sets air pollution standards, California has a unique status granted under the federal Clean Air Act that allows the state to enact its own rules as long as it receives permission from EPA. Other states can then choose to follow either the federal or California standards. California had first requested the waiver in 2005, but the agency did not act on the request until after the Supreme Court ruled last April "... that the EPA has authority to regulate greenhouse gases and tailpipe emissions as an air pollutant under the Clean Air Act." Since California passed its legislation, 11 other states have adopted its regulations, including New York, Washington, Oregon, Maryland, Rhode Island and Vermont. Agents of change The laws of physics tell us that resistance to change is an expected force with which to reckon. In the transportation sector, changes to a product to reduce the environmental impact are as apt to be initially met by friction - applied by those wishing to avoid or slow the pace - as they are by the collaboration of those who place social impacts above bottom lines. Like a car needs lubrication to move, change in itself needs agents to empower the process. Regulation, technology and dialogue can provide that. EPA, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), automakers, legislators, scientists and environmentalists are aware that the stakes are high regarding health, environmental, financial and other impacts. All by itself, the state of California plays a huge role in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Changing what happens in California not only impacts other states, it also has serious effect on both total U.S. and total global GHG emissions.
In 2003, on-road vehicles accounted for 81 percent of all transportation GHG emissions. Non-road transportation sources (primarily airplanes) emitted 16 percent and mobile equipment (such as refrigeration units) provided the rest.
(Source: EPA)
Since the adoption of the Clean Air Act in 1990, EPA, CARB and other groups have conducted a number of studies researching the scope, sources, impacts and strategies to remedy the emissions problem. Within the transportation sector, identifying the primary sources of emissions has led to laws, regulations and policies targeted to spur the development of new products and technologies that are leaner and cleaner.
Regulatory bodies, such as EPA and CARB, have shown the propensity to overcome resistance and lead change. New regulatory standards mandating a cleaner ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel required oil companies to produce and introduce the new fuel last year, as well as required suppliers to engineer new technology and develop better products and components and vehicle manufacturers to develop compatible vehicles.
Research and development to improve vehicle technology is yet another agent of change. It seems advances in alternate fuel, hybrid, fuel cell, battery and electric technologies are announced daily. Among the performance benefits of these advances, fuel efficiency improvements and reductions in GHG emissions have emerged as key goals.
Dialogue is another catalyst for meaningful change. Involving stakeholders to discuss, with positive regard, their views and concerns is integral to making prudent and inclusive decisions. That EPA and other agencies invite and welcome input from all, rather than act in a solitary manner, promotes buy-in, reduces resistance over time and results in policies that stakeholders and society can live with.
vs. Conventional Vehicles Advances in vehicle technologies are expected to dramatically improve fuel economy and reduce GHG emissions. In a recent EPA study, Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the U.S. Transportation Sector 2000-2003, the agency acknowledged that increases in energy consumption and GHG emissions are very closely related. If nothing is done to curtail them, the EPA expects GHG emissions to rise by 18 percent between 2003 and 2010, and by 48 percent by 2025.
Vehicle Technology Fuel Economy Improvement Reduction in GHG Emissions Advanced Gasoline / Diesel Engines 35%-40% 20%-26% Gasoline-Hybrid Vehicles 40% 29% Diesel-Hybrid Vehicles 70% 35% Corn-based E85 Vehicles -4% 38%-80%Cellulosic-based E85 Vehicles 30% 54%-85% Plug-In Electric Hybrid Vehicles 65% 31%-62% Electric Vehicles 390% 21%-92% Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles 270% 31%-94% (Source: EPA) Many voices, one choir The panel considering California's waiver request heard from two dozen witnesses from environmental groups, other states, industry associations and individuals, including:
* California Attorney General (and former Governor) Jerry Brown, who told regulators, "This is more important than any issue that EPA's going to have to face."
Brown also referenced nearly two years of inaction regarding California's 2005 waiver request, and he referenced California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who said the state would sue if EPA does not act on the state's request by Oct. 25, 2007.
Brown told the panel, "We're preparing a lawsuit, but we certainly don't want to bring it."
* CARB Chairman Robert Sawyer, who told the panel that in the 40 years since California was granted independent regulatory authority under an exemption to the Clean Air Act, EPA has never turned down a waiver request, approving more than 50. He added that a half-dozen other states were ready to adopt the California rule once a waiver was granted.
* Spokespersons for the states of Illinois, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Maryland, who spoke in favor of California's law and wanted the EPA waiver granted.
* A representative from the Manufacturers of Emission Controls Association, who also spoke in favor of the law.
* Adam Lee, president of a chain of Maine auto dealerships, who told the panel that automakers have hurt their reputations by opposing other federal requirements in the past, such as smog controls and seat belts: "I think the auto industry needs to try a little harder, and I don't think they will try any harder until enough states force them to."
* Steve Douglas of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, who told the panel that California had not proven that its rules would actually reduce global warming and that a national approach would be better: "A patchwork of state-level fuel economy regulations as is now proposed by California is not simply unnecessary, it's patently counterproductive. The state's waiver request contains many assumptions and undocumented claims about its benefits in countering global warming."
Following the hearing, Oge gave no indication of how the agency might be leaning. She also declined to say how EPA will act on the waiver request. But the wheels of change are finally moving.
(Sources: EPA,
CARB,
Detroit News, CBS)
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