Gabriel Bouys

In July, when the Obama Administration announced a plan for strict new fuel efficiency standards that would require a fleet-wide average for cars and light trucks of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, the sustainable business non-profit CERES reported the move would create nearly 500,000 new jobs nationwide.

“The new jobs will be related directly to the auto industry, and there will be additional jobs because consumers will have more money to spend because they will be saving on fuel,” said Carol Lee Rawn, director of the transportation program at CERES.

July was a preliminary announcement. The EPA is expected to release official targets later this month.  Final rules are not expected until next July.

In anticipation of the EPA announcement, CERES is making the case that not only will stricter standards benefit the nation as a whole, but they will also spur economic growth in 49 individual states. Only Wyoming may suffer a net loss from the new rules, said Rawn, according to data from  their report “More Jobs per Gallon,” originally released in July.

The picture for California looks particularly good, said Rawn.

“California is a large state, so there are lots of opportunities there,” she said. “And California is a leader in advanced vehicle technology so it stands to benefit that way as well.”

Specifically, the study finds that:

• the 54.5 mpg standard would create more than 57,300 new jobs in California, putting the state in first place in terms of jobs created.
• the 54.5 mpg standard would boost California’s GDP by about $3.67 billion.

Governor Brown has praised the tougher standards proposed by the Administration back in July.

California is playing a major role in developing the new federal standards. Last year the state had been poised to announce its own rules for model years 2017-2025, but in January the Air Resources Board agreed to a shared deadline with the federal government. Since then, officials from CARB have been working with federal agencies, automakers, and environmental groups to develop the new rules.

Craig Miller

Fifteen years from now, the average car in the United States must get nearly 55 miles to the gallon,  according to new fuel-efficiency standards proposed Friday by the Obama Administration.  That’s a sharp increase from the current requirement that vehicles average 34.5 miles per gallon by 2016.

California officials, environmental groups, and automakers are praising the new rules, which would require  a fleet-wide average for cars and light trucks of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

On a call with reporters today, Governor Jerry Brown called the new regulations, “probably the brightest light I’ve seen in Washington in many a month, if not years.”

Brown said the new standards would encourage technological innovation, reduce fuel consumption, and cut greenhouse gas emissions across the state and the country.

California has been fighting for tighter emissions restrictions on passenger vehicles for years.  In 2002, the state began seeking a waiver from the EPA so it could set its own greenhouse gas emission standards for cars, but that wasn’t granted until 2009.  Last year the Obama Administration announced the first greenhouse gas emissions standards on a national level, based on California regulations for vehicles manufactured through 2016.

The state had been set to announce its own rules for model years 2017-2025, but in January the Air Resources Board announced that it would commit to a shared deadline with the federal government.

Officials from the California Air Resources Board worked closely with federal agencies, automakers, and environmental groups to develop the new rules.

“California has been pushing, starting way back with the Governor Reagan/President Nixon era, right up to to the present,” said Brown. “And what this demonstrates here, is that with this persistence, the auto companies have finally come on board, and that innovative role for California was crucial in all this.”

According to the White House, the new fuel standards will save 12 billion barrels of oil and eliminate six billion metric tons of CO2 pollution, and save consumers $1.7 trillion at the pump.  In California alone, the new standards would save 180,000 barrels of oil a day, equal to cutting the state’s oil consumption by 20%, according to the non-profit group Environment California.

“We think this is a very good deal, and we are happy and proud to have played a role in shaping it,” said California Air Resources Board head Mary Nichols.

“What California does is push the envelope.  But not just for the sake of pushing the envelope. We do this because we have a need to reduce the impact of our whole transportation system on our environment and to improve its economic performance,” Nichols said.

Cars and light trucks are currently responsible for 28% of California’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Photo: Craig Miller

If, fifteen years from now, new cars across the country are getting twice the miles per gallon that they do today, California can rightly claim some of the credit.

On Friday the Obama Administration released plans for improving fuel efficiency in cars and light trucks for model years 2017 through 2025, with a final standard somewhere between 47 and 62 miles per gallon. The move builds on the new federal fuel standard, based on California’s, for model years 2012 through 2016.

California is scheduled to adopt its own fuel efficiency standards for 2017-2025 vehicles in January, said California Air Resources Board (CARB) member Dan Sperling, which is well before federal agencies expect to set a national standard.   CARB staff will release the proposed state standard later this year, he said.

“Presumably what California does will have a strong impact on what the U.S. EPA decides,” said Sperling, adding that there is a “a lot” of communication between the state and federal agencies.

In May, when President Obama directed the US EPA and Department of Transportation to assess potential options and create a plan for extending the federal standard into years 2017-2025, he requested that they coordinate with the California Air Resources Board in doing so.

UC Berkeley professor and new Green Energy “Czar” for the World Bank, Dan Kammen, said California can take “a lot” of credit for federal action on fuel efficiency.

“California has played a major role by being one step ahead,” he said.

Friday’s announcement, technically a “Notice of Intent,” included assessments of four different scenarios (PDF), looking at annual improvements ranging from three-to-six percent.  The assessments attempt to gauge potential effects on the auto industry and employment, and were conducted by the Environmental  Protection Agency and the National Highway and Transportation Authority in collaboration with CARB.  The agencies say they plan on releasing an updated analysis by the end of November, and aim to propose actual standards within a year.

The advocacy group Environment California said in a statement that a fuel efficiency average of at least 60 miles per gallon by 2025 would cut oil use in the state by 5.3 billion gallons in 2030, saving Californians $13.4 billion at the pump.

In a post on the New York Times “Green” blog, Matthew L.Wald explores some questions raised by a future national fuel efficiency standard, such as how electric cars will affect the mix.

CARB estimates that if every car in California had properly inflated tires, the state could save 75 million gallons of fuel and reduce emissions by 900 metric tons.

But despite those lofty numbers, the regulation likely won’t affect the lives of consumers very much at all.

“Essentially, the only difference they’ll see if that the technician is going to ask if they want their tires inflated,” said Dmitri Stanich, a CARB spokesman.

Service providers can charge for the service, and it’s likely that many will, said David McClune, executive director of the California Autobody Association.  (Auto body shops are exempt from the rule, unless they also offer mechanical services.)

“It could be very minimal,” said McClune.  “Some guys might just want to tack on a dollar, or three or four.  For others it’s just part of their normal procedure, but I wouldn’t think it would be that costly.”

Customers who don’t want to pay the extra dollars, however, have the right to decline the service. But according to the new rule, they must “affirm” that they have either had their tires checked in the last 30 days or will do so in the next seven.

But what if a customer declines the service, and then, say, forgets to check her tires in the coming days?  Will she get busted by the tire police?

Not likely, said Stanich.

“There will be no enforcement officers pulling people over and checking their tire pressure,” he said.

But according to Roland Hwang, the transportation program manager for the Natural Resources Defense Council, maintaining the proper tire pressure is the right thing to do, regardless of the regulation.

“There’s a surprising number of people with under inflated tires,” said Hwang. “And what does that mean?  That means you are consuming more fuel and paying more money at the pump. It also means there’s more air pollution being put in the air, and finally, it also means that you are risking your safety.”

But McClune said the new regulation creates more a paperwork, which isn’t sitting well with everyone.

“The additional administrative and compliance stuff is not real positive for some people,” he said.

And even though the rule went into effect on September 1st, McClune said many businesses still aren’t quite sure how to comply.

“At this point, there’s a lot of questions,” he said.

Stanich said there will be a 6-month grace period while CARB works to answer those questions. After that, the rule will be enforced as part of the agency’s existing auditing process.

As for what will happen to the new rule if Propostion 23 passes this November and AB32 is suspended?  Stanich said that at this point, the agency’s legal team doesn’t know.  If Prop. 23 passes, the regulation may be suspended along with the rest of the law, he said, or it’s possible that the agency would seek reinstate the rule on the grounds of air pollution prevention rather than greenhouse gas reductions.

NPR has a complete story on the announcement.

The new federal rules, which mandate that the U.S. car and light-truck fleet reach an average fuel efficiency of between 35.5 mpg by 2016, are modeled after the standards outlined in California’s AB 1493, which was signed into law in 2002.  The state was not granted permission from the U.S. EPA to implement the law until June 2009, however.

In a written statement Thursday, state Air Resources Board Chairman Mary Nichols said,  “For eight long years California and the thirteen other states that adopted our tough standards led the way. This action by the White House now means consumers in all fifty states can benefit from cleaner, more efficient cars.”

Not exactly the Space Shuttle: A big rig in the wind tunnel at NASA Ames Research Center. Photo: Gretchen Weber

A companion radio piece to this post aired on The California Report.

The wind tunnel at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View is the largest in the world. According to Ames deputy director Lou Braxton, at various times it has housed a Boeing 747 and an America’s Cup racing yacht. But parked inside this week was a relatively diminutive semi-truck with a 53-foot trailer. The truck is called the ProStar, and according to its manufacturer, Navistar, it’s the most aerodynamic truck on the road.

The wind tunnel was open to the media because Ames, Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL), Navistar, and the Air Force (which manages the tunnel) were showcasing their ongoing project designed to identify, develop, and test devices that reduce the aerodynamic drag of “big rigs.” The wind tunnel wasn’t activated for the press event but the media gathered inside the cavernous space could envision how the tests might work.

At highway speeds, more than 50 percent of the energy produced by a truck’s engine is used to overcome aerodynamic drag. Therefore, reducing that drag can produce significant fuel savings. In fact, testing thus far has determined that existing aerodynamic design adjustments and attachments can increase fuel efficiency by 12 percent, which, when applied to the US trucking fleet, could save more than three billion gallons of diesel fuel per year, a cost savings of more than $10 billion at current prices. This savings in diesel translates to a reduction of 36 million metric tons of CO2 per year.

Inside the wind tunnel, the truck’s trailer was outfitted with various attachments designed to reduce drag at critical points such as the trailer base, the under body, and the gap between the tractor and trailer. Some, such as the TrailerTail, are already commercially available, while others are still in development. For the next three weeks, scientists will test various devices and combinations. The best ones will be track tested and then road tested over the next year.

Currently, semi-trucks make up about 12 percent of US petroleum consumption; about 21 million barrels a day, according to LLNL.

The TrailerTail (Photo: Gretchen Weber)

Outside the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) at Ames, where the wind tunnel is located (Photo: Gretchen Weber)