Obama pushes tougher fuel standards for US cars

This will promote advanced vehicle technology, such as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and all electric vehicles, Obama said. Obama called for the adoption of first-ever greenhouse-gas pollution limits and fuel-efficiency standards for heavy trucks, starting in 2014. He also ordered his Transportation Department and environmental agency to develop new standards for cars and small trucks starting in 2017.

Obama last year reached a landmark agreement with carmakers to raise efficiency in the model years 2012-2016. Those new standards were finalized last month and will raise fuel economy in the US from a current 11.6 kilometres per litre (27.3 mpg - 8.6 l/100 km) to an average 15.1 kilometres per litre by 2016 (35.5 mpg - 6.6 l/100 km).

Trucks consume more than 2 million barrels of oil a day, according to the White House, and average only 6.1 miles per gallon. They also are responsible for 20% of the transportation industry’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Obama said his directive not only will reduce pollution, but it also “will bring down costs for transporting goods, serving businesses and consumers alike.”

The president also called for higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks beginning in 2017, beyond the higher standards issued a month ago for 2012 through 2016 models.

Giving these directives now will help the auto industry, truckers, and consumers because it provides certainty as to where fuel-efficiency standards are going, according to the White House. This will promote advanced vehicle technology, such as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and all electric vehicles, Obama said.

“This sends a clear message to our innovators, entrepreneurs, and auto manufacturers that this country is committed to leading the way through 2016 and beyond,” said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

The president also directed the Department of Energy to provide increased support for deployment on electric vehicles and other advanced vehicle technologies.

Automakers, who worked with the Obama administration to develop the higher fuel standards for 2012 through 2016 also collaborated on the administration’s latest step.

"The federal government is looking 15 years down the road and uniting all the diverse stakeholders to work towards the same national goal," said Dave McCurdy, president and CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. "By starting this process, we are clearing a single path to 2025. We’ve come a long way policy wise in a short time. A year ago, automakers faced a regulatory maze resulting from multiple sets of inconsistent fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards."

McCurdy’s view was echoed by the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, whose members account for 40% of all cars and light trucks sold in the U.S.

“Today’s commitment creates a path to greater future progress,” said Michael Stanton, the association’s president and CEO. The lead time provided automakers will enable them “to design and build the type of advanced technology vehicles needed while continuing to provide consumers with a full range of vehicle choices,” he said.

That lead time is important not only for auto manufacturers, but the energy industry and consumers as well, McCurdy said.

“Energy providers need time to expand availability of low-carbon fuels and their infrastructure,” he said. "And introducing new technologies and fuels to consumers takes time to get up to speed. So we need to start now."

The trucking industry also supports higher fuel-efficiency standards. The American Trucking Association is more concerned about the climate-change bill introduced by Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Senator Joe Lieberman, Independent of Connecticut, which they said would increase the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel by forcing refiners to purchase billions of dollars in carbon allowances.

"I'm proposing we start developing right now a new and higher standard to take effect beginning 2017 so that we can make more and more progress in the years to come," Obama said in a speech from the White House Rose Garden.

Barack Obama Delivers Remarks On Vehicle Fuel Efficiency

Through the directive I'm signing, we're also going to work with public and private sectors to develop the advanced infrastructure that will be necessary for plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles, and we're going to continue to work to diversify our fuel mix, including biofuels, natural gas and other cleaner sources of energy.

I believe that it's possible in the next 20 years for vehicles to use half the fuel and produce half the pollution that they do today. But that's only going to happen if we are willing to do what's necessary for the sake of our economy, our security and our environment.

Today's announcement is an essential part of our energy strategy, but it's not a substitute for other necessary steps to ensure our leadership in a new clean energy economy.

I'm heartened by the good work that's been done by Senator Kerry and Lieberman on a comprehensive energy and climate bill to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, to prevent the worse consequences of climate change, and foster the millions of new jobs that are possible if we rise to this challenge.

And this follows the passage of comprehensive legislation through the House last June.

So as I've said before, I intend to work with members of both parties to pass a bill this year. In the meantime, I'm going to take every sensible and responsible action that I can use -- that I can using my authority as president to move our country in the right direction. That's what we've done today. That's what we're going to continue to do in the days, weeks and months ahead.

Source: The White House, May 23rd, 2010

Better driving through electricity

Some day in the future, car owners will use their phones to talk to their cars as they quietly charge in the garage.

People will call ahead to set the thermostat to 75 degrees on a freezing day. The car will send a text message if someone forgot to plug it in. It will move, silent, as the driver shifts gears without a mechanical gearshift in an interior made from recycled water bottles.

The future is now.

Well, soon, anyway. In December, Nissan will begin delivering its fully electric LEAF, starting at $25,280 (including tax savings) and offering the possibility of those features. Chevrolet, Ford and other auto makers plan to roll out electric vehicles this year, with still others following in the next two to three years.

"Electric cars are coming if we're ready or not," said Al Lara, a spokesman for Northeast Utilities, a member of a group of utility companies called the Regional Electric Vehicle Initiative seeking to prepare the market and infrastructure for the transition. "It's all part of creating a sustainable solution for ourselves."

REVI and the Governor's Electric Vehicles Infrastructure Council hosted a forum at the Legislative Office Building Friday to discuss the arrival of the new vehicles in the state, what people can expect and what might need to be done to support them.

"It's the future," said Gov. M. Jodi Rell after test driving a Toyota plug-in hybrid. "If you plan for the future, you'll already be there."

Speakers at the forum stressed that much of the infrastructure already exists. According to Megan Pomeroy of United Illuminating, about 80% of electric vehicle owners will charge them at home overnight, more than 60% of home garages have a 120-volt plug within 25 feet, and about 85% of homes have some 240-volt service because of central air conditioning or an electric clothes dryer.

Vehicles using 120-volt outlets can fully charge a lithium ion battery in about eight hours. A 240-volt outlet can cut charging time to six or three hours. The Nissan LEAF will offer both options, plus a way to charge with a direct current outlet reaching 80% of a battery's capacity in about 26 minutes.

The Chevrolet Volt, an electric car launching in November with a range-extending gas engine, can travel 40 miles (64 km) on its battery under ideal conditions. The LEAF and the BMW ActiveE, due next year, can cruise 100 miles (160 km) on a full charge.

Source: Republican American, by Rick Harrison, May 22nd, 2010

U.S. doubles the federal hybrid fleet

President Obama announced today that the Federal Government will lead by example in replacing older cars in the federal fleet with fuel efficient hybrids and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, reducing US dependence on foreign oil as well as cutting carbon dioxide and other pollution.

The U.S. General Services Administration will double the federal hybrid fleet this year and has committed to purchasing approximately 100 plug-in hybrid vehicles in 2011.

These steps are part of a broad effort to implement the Executive Order signed by President Obama in October which calls on agencies to cut the federal government's fleet petroleum use by 30% by 2020, among other goals.

"President Obama has called on the Federal Government to lead by example in sustainability and our efforts to build a clean energy economy. By doubling the hybrids in the Federal fleet, agencies are answering that call by reducing petroleum consumption and increasing fuel efficiency," said Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

"These types of clean energy investments will help create new private-sector jobs, drive long-term savings, build market capacity, and foster innovation in clean energy industries."

Using existing funds, GSA will replace 5,603 of the least fuel efficient cars and trucks in the Federal fleet with fuel efficient hybrids, doubling the number of hybrids in the federal fleet without increasing the total number of vehicles.

The resulting improvement in fleet fuel efficiency will reduce petroleum consumption by the equivalent of an estimated 7.7 million gallons of gas, or 385,000 barrels of oil.

"By doubling the hybrid fleet and committing to purchasing plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, GSA is leveraging our position as the government's centralized supplier to invest in emerging clean energy technologies, increase the government fleet's fuel economy, and decrease the cost of government operations," said Martha N. Johnson, Administrator of General Services.

"GSA is committed to delivering solutions that help agencies deliver on the President's call to increase sustainability and energy security." The Department of Energy is helping lead the way on this initiative by replacing 753 vehicles with hybrids this year. This brings the total number of hybrid vehicles at the Department to 888, even as the Department begins to reduce the overall size of its vehicle fleet.

"The Department of Energy is committed to expanding the use of hybrids even as we reduce our fleet overall, saving gasoline and money for taxpayers," said Secretary Chu.

Source: Energy Portal, May 2nd, 2010

Hybrids leading the way to global embrace of EVs

For years the marketing and advertising from government and car companies alike have boldly stated that it was only a matter of time before electric vehicles took over the car industry. Now, electric vehicles, in the form of hybrids that combine both gas and electric motors, are finally beginning to do just that.

As a result, the world populace is accepting hybrid electric vehicles and giving them equal weight as an option in their car purchases, according to "Electric Vehicle (EV) and Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) Markets Worldwide," the latest report from leading energy market research firm SBI Energy.

The report examines the natural progression occurring in the marketplace from hybrid electric vehicles to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to battery electric vehicles. Each stage won't likely be picked up by consumers in mass quantities until the previous technology has matured and reached a significant portion of the market.

"The hybrid electric vehicle has been accepted into the automotive scene like no other type of electric vehicle before," says Shelley Carr, publisher of SBI Energy. "And what's truly impressive is how well hybrids are doing compared to regular passenger vehicles."Global sales of hybrid electric vehicles rose 33% in 2009 with 700,000 vehicles sold in an unfavorable climate that saw the overall auto market plunge worldwide. SBI Energy calculates that sales of hybrids accounted for 99% of all electric vehicle sales in 2009 worldwide. Sales of hybrid electric vehicles exploded in Japan during 2009, with the production of hybrids by domestic manufacturers for domestic sale reaching 334,000 cars, essentially tripling production compared to 2008.

Overall, Japan garnered almost half of all global hybrid sales, followed by the U.S. with 42% of global sales.

SBI Energy's analysis of the market indicates that buying a hybrid in the U.S. is still very much about making a statement concerning oil use and environmental conservationism. In Japan, however, environmental sentiment along with a personal sense of responsibility to do something about environmental issues is much more pervasive.

According to SBI Energy, future growth of the electric vehicle market on a global scale will depend on three key motivators:

• government incentives to consumers to purchase fuel efficient vehicles;
• any increase in the price of crude oil and gas prices at the pumps;
• a reduction in the price differential between hybrids and non-hybrids.

"Electric Vehicle (EV) and Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) Markets Worldwide" analyzes the manufacturing and sales of electric based passenger vehicles throughout the world with a particular emphasis on the United States and Japan as the leading markets for electric vehicles. The analysis includes definitions, current product offerings and market detail on: passenger hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and battery electric vehicles (BEV).

Source : SOA World, February 22nd, 2010

Stimulus funds for clean energy largely unspent

Making a “tremendous down payment on the clean energy transformation” of the United States was a top priority of the Obama administration’s economic stimulus package – but, despite some notable accomplishments, it remains mostly a promise at this point.

Most of the funds from the stimulus still haven’t been spent, and the clean-energy down payment is a long way from being completed. Its impact so far on those jobs has only been lightly felt in pockets across the nation, economists and others watching its impact in their regions say. “It’s fair to say the stimulus is a down payment, but I wouldn’t call it a tremendous down payment at this point,” says Joan Fitzgerald, an expert on economic development at Northeastern University in Boston, who has analyzed the stimulus’s impact on the wind-power and other clean-technology industries.

Overall, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or stimulus bill, has seen $263 billion (33.4%) spent of the $787 billion available by the end of last year. As a result, the US economy is now employing about 1.5 million to 2 million more workers, the President's Council of Economic Advisors recently reported – and other independent economists agree. But so far, just one-third of the roughly $90 billion ($60.7 billion in direct spending and $29.5 billion in tax incentives) targeting the clean-energy sector has actually hit the street – to fund wind-farm development, solar plants, battery factories, high-speed rail, and home weatherization, among many other projects. As a result, just 63,000 of the jobs directly created or saved by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act by the end of last year were clean-energy jobs, the president's economic council reports.

That so-far modest impact should become much more significant as the US Department of Energy ramps up its approval process and spends the remaining billions by September, David Sandalow, assistant secretary of energy for policy and international affairs, said at a press conference Wednesday. Over the next two years, the $90 billion spent on clean energy is expected to create 720,000 job-years of employment. In addition to jobs, some 16,000 megawatts of wind, solar, geothermal, and other renewable energy capacity propelled by the stimulus will power about 4 to 5 million homes. “Each one of [these jobs] is doing work made possible by the recovery act,” Mr. Sandalow said. “The recovery act has been crucial to unlocking financing” for new wind, solar, geothermal power projects. High-speed rail construction in Wisconsin, new-generation plug-in hybrid vehicle battery factories in Detroit and wind farm turbines sprouting across the US landscape last year – all would not exist without the stimulus passed by Congress last year, other observers agree.“Some folks on one end of the spectrum say the stimulus hasn’t done a darn thing,” says Rob Sargent, who tracks clean-energy for EnvironmentAmerica, a Washington-based advocacy group. “If you look around and see – it has led to investments in clean energy of a magnitude we’ve never seen.” Other expert watchers agree.

“Broadly speaking, the stimulus has helped an enormous amount,” says Alex Klein, research director for Emerging Energy Research, a market research company based in Cambridge, Mass. “Treasury grants have helped expedite wind development, manufacturing incentives have jump-started battery manufacturing – and kept wind and solar manufacturing in the US alive.” The stimulus has expedited both project development and helped to build local supply chains, Mr. Klein says. But some note that the stimulus, while keeping the wind-power and other renewable industries from tanking in 2009, has not worked a miracle on US clean-energy manufacturers’ competitiveness. “We’re not competitive yet with other clean-energy export nations,” says Kevin Book, managing partner with ClearView Partners, a Washington energy research and consulting firm. “There’s an argument to be made that we could become the next big manufacturer of clean tech, but we’re not the most compelling candidate right now. China and Germany are ahead of us."News reports highlighting Texas wind-farm projects that purchased Japanese-made turbines – and others with plans to purchase turbines from China – have had congressmen throwing up their hands in protest.So is Bob Lloyd, plant manager at Clipper Wind Power’s Waterloo, Iowa, manufacturing plant. His plant had layoffs a year ago and is still operating at less than half its capacity.“We’re trying to build this product,” he says. “ 'Hey, we're paying taxes, and we don’t want to pay taxes to bring in foreign-made products' – that’s the feeling of folks around here.”Clipper and General Electric are America’s only domestic wind-turbine manufacturers. But while Clipper’s business is picking up, their plight highlights a conundrum: Until US demand for clean energy grows, it will be hard to develop domestic clean-energy manufacturing that can out-compete overseas companies on price as well as quality, experts say.The stimulus support can't produce an overnight transformation for US clean-energy manufacturers, Mr. Book says. What’s needed is a “natural demand” for clean-energy, or a “legislative demand.” And yet, a cap-and-trade climate bill that would do just that, by putting a price on carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, is stalled in Congress.“Unless natural demand for clean energy develops in the US – or it can become a competitive exporter to markets overseas, the spending won’t have succeeded,” he says. “We have to have a price on carbon.”

Source : C.S. Monitor, by Mark Clayton, February 18th, 2010

Electric Cars Need Infrastructure

For electric cars to achieve widespread adoption in the years ahead, two things have to happen:

1- a charging infrastructure needs to get built

2- people need to buy electric cars.

Of these, the hype surrounding the Detroit Auto Show, a veritable electric-car-apalooza, seeks to overcome problems associated with the second while making noises about the first. Who’s making the noise? None other than the Ford Motor Company’s very own...William C. Ford, Jr.:

“'We don’t know what the market is going to be for electric vehicles,” ...Ford’s executive chairman, said. 'A lot will depend on the ability of people to charge them at home, at work, at the mall. But we will be ready for the demand whatever it is, whether it becomes 10% of the market or 90%.'

At home many potential EV customers will be able to handle. Work and mall are another story and the key to EVs occupying more than 10% of the market. As for 90%, well, that may never happen, as we may be ready to begin a switch from EVs to hydrogen-powered cars before all the gas-burning cars are wiped out. In 30-40 years, it will probably be apparent that our oil supplies are dwindling, although we may at that time only be seeing the serious downward slide on the peak oil curve. An orderly conversion to EVs, while we increase the efficiency of internal-combustion engines and hybrids, should buy us enough time to, at mid-century, make an easy transition to truly sustainable mobility.

Source : The Washington Post, by Matthew DeBord, January 13th, 2010

Survey hints at strong demand for EVs

Plug-in electric cars have technology geeks and the well-heeled excited, but how will they play in Peoria?

Ernst & Young on Thursday released results from a survey of 1,000 licensed U.S. drivers that found 10% of drivers would consider purchasing a plug-in hybrid or electric vehicle. That represents about 20 million American drivers, enough demand to sell out 2010 and 2011 electric vehicles.

Automakers are betting the electrification of power trains is the future of the auto business, as was clear from this week's North American International Auto Show in Detroit. But even as automakers prepare to produce tens of thousands of these cars, big questions remain over how strong the demand will be.

Some argue that there will be rapid uptake in certain regions, much the way the well known Toyota Prius hybrid has been adopted. The Boston Consulting Group forecasts that 25% of new auto sales in 2020 will be hybrids or electrics, with the bulk being conventional hybrids.

Yet there are still clear barriers to consumer adoption, including range, cost, and availability of charging stations at home or public places.

Ernst & Young found that 34% of respondents were willing to subsidize local charging stations. At the same time, their top reason for considering buying an electric or plug-in hybrid is to save money on fuel.

Source : GreenTech, by Martin LaMonica, January 14th, 2010