Post Tagged with: "Legislation"

Obama Favors “Cash for Clunkers”

April 1, 2009 at 7:43 pm

(Source: TreeHugger); Video: YouTube)

 Yesterday President Obama told Chrysler and GM that it is time to shape up or ship out. He also said he supports a program that would pay people to trade in older cars for newer, more fuel efficient vehicles. Europe has successfully tried this, but could it work here and would it be good for the planet? 

Speaking about a so called “cash for clunkers” program, Obama said:

“Such fleet modernization programs, which provide a generous credit to consumers who turn in old, less fuel-efficient cars and purchase cleaner cars, have been successful in boosting auto sales in a number of European countries.”

Here is an analysis from a News portal on what it could mean for consumers.

This is especially true in Germany, where new auto sales are said to have risen 20 percent last month. Of course, Europe has much higher gas prices than we do, increasing the desire to go with a greener car. They are also taxing people for their carbon output, again incentivizing people to get rid of heavier, more inefficient cars and trucks., A gas tax and other complimentary taxes that would bring our prices in line with Europe’s is politically unlikely, so a trade-in program may have some political legs given Congress’s new found attention on the climate. 

Another supporter is Ohio Rep. Betty Sutton, who sponsors the CARS Act, which creates vouchers of between $3,000 and $5,000 for people to trade-up. Given the president’s announcement yesterday, it’s suddenly a viable question to ask if there will be any American cars to buy if a cash for clunkers plan was enacted.

Here are some of the related posts from TransportGooru:

Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) Act revives “Cash for Clunkers” scrapping plan in U.S

Germany plans to extend Abwrackprämie aka “Environmental Bonus” (in plain english, car scrapping program)

The bickering starts over the implementation of the Cash for Clunkers legislation

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Fading future of California’s hydrogen highway

March 11, 2009 at 2:43 pm

  (Source: New York Times, Greenwire via Autobloggreen) 

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger loves things that start with H, like Hummers and California’s Hydrogen Highway. Well, he used to anyway. We know about the Governator’s move away from gas-guzzling Hummers and towards greener transportation options. A recent article in the New York Times (and in WIRED a year ago) show that Arnold’s dream of a statewide network of 150-200 H2fueling stations is slowly fading as well. 
Soon after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) took office in 2003, he set in motion a campaign promise to build, by 2010, a “hydrogen highway” composed of 150 to 200 fueling stations spaced every 20 miles along California’s major highways.

Schwarzenegger’s “Vision 2010” plan promised that every California motorist would have access to hydrogen fuel by the end of the decade. He has since repeatedly mentioned the highway in a standard stump speech on his environmental accomplishments.

But the program has fallen short of expectations. With less than 10 months until the end of the decade, 24 hydrogen fueling stations are operating in California, most of them near Los Angeles.

The vision of a hydrogen infrastructure, with fueling stations dotting the interstates, has not materialized, partly because the eager governor may have set unrealistic targets.

Gerhard Achtelik, manager of the hydrogen highway program at the Air Resources Board, admitted in an interview that the state would not hit its 150-station goal by 2010.

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Transportation and Climate Change Newsletter – February 2009

March 10, 2009 at 10:16 am

(Source: Office of Planning, Environment and Realty Federal Highway Administration)

Recent EventsCome Hell or High Water 1

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer Announces Principles for Global Warming Legislation. On February 3, S

en. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) announced her intent to move quickly on global warming legislation and issued principles that she would like to see included. These include setting short and long term emissions targets that are certain and enforceable, using a carbon market to fund various efforts to reduce GHG emissions, and ensuring a level global playing field so that countries contribute their fair share to GHG emissions reductions. For more information including a link to Sen. Boxer’s Principles, see the Committee’s press release.

House Subcommittee Receives Testimony on Surface Transportation Energy Reduction.On January 27, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit heard from nationally recognized transportation experts and a panel of industry representatives about ways to reduce energy consumption and promote sustainability in the surface transportation sector.  Video of the proceedings and written testimonies (scroll down) are available on the Subcommittee website.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Holds Meeting on Maritime Transport and the Climate Change Challenge. On February 17, FHWA’s Mike Savonis presented (via videoconference) results from USDOT’s Gulf Coast Study Phase I to an international audience in Geneva.  Additional information and presentations from the three-day event are available on the meeting website.

U.C. Davis Provides Congressional Briefing on Low-Carbon Transportation Policies & Strategies. On January 12, 2009, the University of California at Davis (UC Davis) Institute of Transportation Studies provided a briefing to Congressional staffers on the future of low-carbon transportation. More information about UC Davis climate change activities is available on the UC Davis ITS website.

House Subcommittee Conducts Hearing on Monitoring GHG Emissions.  On February 24, the House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Energy and Environment conducted a hearing on how to monitor, report and verify greenhouse gas emissions.  The purpose of the hearing was to determine the federal role in the funding of research and development of monitoring technologies as well as models to support reliable baseline data for GHG emissions.  The subcommittee heard testimony from businesses, government agencies, and localities on procedures and methods that can be used to monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas emissions.  More information can be found on the Committee’s website at: http://science.house.gov/publications/hearings_markups_details.aspx?NewsID=2359

State News

Oregon Governor Introduces VMT Fee Legislation. Following a study on charging a Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) fee in place of a state gas tax, the Governor of Oregon introduced legislation that could move the state closer to adopting a per mile road user fee in place of the 24-cent per gallon gas tax. Governor Kulongoski’s Jobs and Transportation Act of 2009 requires the Oregon DOT to develop VMT fee collection technology that could be used to replace the gas tax.  The Act also directs Oregon DOT to further study gas tax alternatives.

Click here to read the entire newsletter.

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Get your Geld ready: Germany issues final draft on CO2-based taxes

March 9, 2009 at 2:07 pm

(Source: Autobloggreen)

Changing the road tax legislation in Germany wasn’t an easy thing to do. Here’s how the new tax works, starting July 1st:  

 

First, there’s a base tax based on displacement: €2 per each 100 cubic centimeters if it’s a gasoline car or €9.5 if it’s a diesel car. Additional taxes are based on CO2: for each gram over 120 that your car emits per kilometer, your tax will be increased by €2. That CO2 limit will drop to 110 grams in 2012 and, from 2014 onwards, it will be 95 grams. So, for example, the new Toyota IQ 1.33, which emits 113 gm/km. The 1.3-liter gas engine will be taxed at 13 * 2 = €26 and the number will stay the same until 2012. At that time, its owner will be charged an extra €6 additional (€32 in total) because 113-110 = 3 grams at €2 each. Then, in 2014, the tax will be even higher: 113-95 = 18 grams, at €2 each, €36 additional (€62 total). I’ll let you do the math with a Porsche Cayenne S.
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Blue-ribbon panel endorses road pricing, shift from gas tax

February 26, 2009 at 4:01 pm

(Source: Greenwire via New York Times)

A blue-ribbon federal transportation panel called today for a temporary gas-tax hike followed by a move toward charging drivers directly for every mile they travel — two ideas that have been soundly rejected by the White House in the past week.

The controversial road-pricing scheme would become the dominant funding mechanism for road construction and maintenance by 2020, with drivers being charged an average of 2 cents per mile, according to the report released by the 15-member panel created by Congress in the last highway bill authorization.

The National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission says the shift is necessary because the current funding mechanism — federal fuel taxes — has failed to raise the necessary revenue for needed roadwork and runs counterintuitive to national environmental and energy goals.

“The more successful U.S. transportation policy is at increasing fuel efficiency and reducing both foreign oil dependency and carbon emissions, the faster its primary funding source, the gas tax, becomes obsolete,” said Texas state Rep. Mike Krusee, a commission member.

Increases in fuel economy, coupled with the fact that the current federal tax on gasoline has remained stagnant at 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993, have already taken their toll on federal revenues to fund road construction and maintenance. The Highway Trust Fund, which receives the bulk of its money from federal fuel taxes, would have run empty late last year if it were not for an eleventh-hour transfer of $8 billion by Congress to keep it solvent.

“With the expected shift to more fuel-efficient vehicles, it will be increasingly difficult to rely on the gas tax to raise the funds needed to improve, let alone maintain, our nation’s surface transportation infrastructure,” said commission Chairman Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank.

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DOT will take back seat to White House advisers on climate — LaHood

February 25, 2009 at 2:47 pm

(Source: ClimateWire via NYTimes)

The Transportation Department will follow the lead of the White House’s top climate and environmental officials when it comes to meeting President Obama’s global warming agenda, DOT Secretary Ray LaHood said today.

LaHood told a group of state transportation officials that while he has already taken part in a number of meetings to discuss climate change legislation with Obama, DOT would likely take a back seat in the climate debate.

“We’ve really taken all of our cues from Carol Browner,” he said, referring to the White House coordinator for energy and climate issues.

LaHood said Browner and U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson would most likely do the heavy lifting when it comes to meeting Obama’s climate goals. DOT is “in the room, we’re at the table, but we probably have less of a role than perhaps some of these other agencies do,” he said at the Washington forum.

DOT instead will focus on finalizing new corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, standards for the auto industry.

LaHood said his agency was working to finish the rulemaking for model year 2011 by this April’s deadline. “We’re going to move that out the door,” he said. “We’re going with what the president asked us to do with respect to CAFE standards.”

Under the proposed rulemaking issued by DOT last year, carmakers would have to raise their fuel economy by 25 percent by 2015. The proposal would push automakers more than halfway to the minimum goal set by Congress of an average of 35 mpg by 2020.

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Let’s Stimulate Smart Highways

February 24, 2009 at 1:05 am

(Source: Forbes.com)

California’s HOT expressways are on the rise but need our government’s financial support.

The “stimulus” legislation just signed into law by President Obama includes billions of dollars for transportation and infrastructure, with little regard as to whether the projects meet any serious national or regional need other than supposedly creating or “saving” jobs.

Like other goods and services in a market economy, transportation and infrastructure projects should respond to the public’s willingness to pay, not to politicians’ eagerness to spend. If the Obama administration really wants “change,” as it claims, it should change the way transportation projects are selected and financed, emphasizing market-based approaches. A good place to start would be with the $27.5 billion the stimulus bill proposes spending on highway, bridge and road projects.

If Washington insists on spending more on highways, it should at least spend it intelligently, rather than throwing it willy-nilly at projects politicians have declared “shovel-ready.”

An example of smart spending would be urban networks of “high-occupancy or toll” (HOT) expressways that accomplish specific objectives, such as increasing accessibility and reducing congestion and air pollution.

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MIT Technology Review: What the Fed Can Learn from California’s Energy Policy

February 24, 2009 at 12:30 am

(Source: MIT Technology Review)

The chair of the California Air Resources Board has some advice for the new administration.

In 2006, the state of California passed landmark legislation aimed at limiting green-house gas emissions. Under the Bush administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rejected the state’s request to regulate vehicular emissions. Earlier this month, the Obama administration announced it would reconsider this ruling–most likely in order to reverse it.

Mary D. Nichols, chairman of the California Air Resources Board, will be responsible for implementing the state’s climate change legislation. In a speech at the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative annual Energy Symposium yesterday, Nichols had some advice for a new presidential administration with the will to act on climate change: follow California’s lead on energy efficiency because it’s been an economic boon for the state. Nichols mentioned a report by Next 10 that claims cutting energy usage over the past 30 years has created 1.5 million jobs in California. (Still, in a state characterized by suburban sprawl, carbon dioxide emissions are quite high, at 11 tons per capita per year.)

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