CLCV Education Fund has been organizing for the past month – along with a coalition of environmental, health, and labor leaders – to generate support for a proposed national cleaner car standard. So it was exciting to see such a large and diverse group of supporters of cleaner cars gather in San Francisco on Tuesday to testify in support of dramatically increasing national fuel efficiency standards at a hearing organized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The proposed EPA rules would require vehicles in the United States to get 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. The fuel standards, which are based on standards pioneered by California lawmakers, are also in response to President Obama’s repeated requests to domestic car manufacturers to produce a new generation of clean vehicles that will help build a clean energy economy. They’re one of the boldest steps in the broader plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change and stop our dangerous addiction to foreign oil.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) worked with the EPA to develop the standard, and testified that if the rules are finalized as proposed, California is willing to let the national standard trump its own standard.
On Tuesday several dozen people environmental advocates, including more than two dozen CLCV members, testified to the EPA, voicing their support for cleaner car standards. Additionally, CLCV members sent thousands of emails to the EPA supporting the proposed rule.
In addition to the expected supporters from CARB and several environmental groups, more than a dozen auto manufacturers and the United Auto Workers union support the new regulations, including Ford, Chrysler, and Hyundai. Representatives of the vehicle manufacturers turned out to testify at the hearing, the third organized nationally (previous hearings took place in Detroit and Philadelphia).
The automobile companies’ support is critical and a welcome change from 2002, when the California law that the proposal is based on was fiercely opposed by the carmakers. At the time, the industry sued and was successful in getting the Bush administration to block the law.
As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle:
“Passenger cars account for 29 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, while SUVs, pickups and minivans account for 33 percent, according to the EPA. The proposed standards, which are expected to be adopted in July, would save about 4 billion barrels of oil and cut emissions by 2 billion metric tons over the lifetimes of the vehicles sold between 2017 and 2025, according to the EPA.
Those fuel savings would far outpace the higher vehicle costs, saving car buyers an average of between $3,000 and $4,400 over the length of the car’s life, assuming gasoline prices remain the same, EPA officials said.”
