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Bush signs bill to increase fuel efficiency
Richard Simon and Johanna Neuman, Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — President Bush on Wednesday signed an energy bill designed to cut U.S. dependence on overseas oil by imposing the biggest increase in fuel-efficiency standards in 32 years and mandating a fivefold increase in the use of home-grown biofuels.
…The legislation calls for a 40% increase in fuel efficiency for new cars and light trucks by 2020, for a fleetwide average of 35 miles per gallon. It also requires a fivefold increase — to 36 billion gallons — in the amount of alternative homegrown fuels, such as ethanol, that must be added to the nation’s gasoline supply by 2022.
Noting that he called for an even greater reduction in oil consumption in his State of the Union address, Bush said that the legislation demonstrates that a Democratic Congress and a Republican White House “can find common ground on critical issues.”
He praised Congress for adding money in the omnibus spending package that passed Wednesday for biofuel research that “will enable us to use wood chips and switch grass and biomass” to produce ethanol, which is now made with corn in the United States.
But the Democratic-controlled Congress and Bush are likely to face a tough time agreeing on other energy measures. Democratic leaders are determined to try again next year to pass measures Bush opposes that would require utilities to generate more electricity from cleaner sources, such as the sun and wind, and that would repeal oil industry tax breaks. Bush’s desire to open the Arctic refuge to energy exploration has been thwarted in Congress.
Democrats, in the spending plan approved Wednesday, provided less money than Bush wanted to enlarge the nation’s oil reserve, contending the money would be better spent promoting energy conservation and development of cleaner fuel sources.
But the bill did include money for loan guarantees to spur development of nuclear power, a provision that prompted environmental groups to visit Capitol Hill on Wednesday, caroling “Nuclear is Coming to Town.”
(20 December 2007)
Bush’s clean energy man
Marc Gunther, Fortune magazine
Andy Karsner was in an ebullient mood the other day, and for good reason. Congress had just approved an energy bill, which, despite serious flaws, puts the country on a path that will promote renewable energy, reduce our dependence on oil, dramatically increase energy efficiency and curb the growth in greenhouse gas emissions.
These are all passions of Karsner, a hard-charging entrepreneur who joined the Bush administration early last year, as assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy. He’s been pushing a clean energy agenda ever since, and this bill, which the president signed on Wednesday, takes a big step in that direction.
The new law is “historic in size, scope and time frame,” Karsner says. “It’s truly unprecedented.”
The law will bring about dramatic changes in the auto industry, the building industry and agriculture, among others.
…Karsner would have written the bill differently, he told Fortune. He has supported tax credits for the solar and wind power industries – they were eliminated from the legislation, because they were linked to revenues that would have come from repealing of oil-industry tax credits. He also has some doubts about the biofuels mandate, which is massive.
But Karsner calls the need for clean energy “the moral imperative of our time” and says federal action is required to develop a long-term, national energy strategy that will stimulate the market forces needed to drive change.
(20 December 2007)
It’s lights out for traditional light bulbs
Paul Davidson, USA Today
Turn out the lights on traditional incandescent bulbs.
A little-noticed provision of the energy bill, which is expected to become law, phases out the 125-year-old bulb in the next four to 12 years in favor of a new generation of energy-efficient lights that will cost consumers more but return their investment in a few months.
The new devices include current products such as compact fluorescents and halogens, as well as emerging products such as light-emitting diodes and energy-saving incandescent bulbs.
“This will get us in line with the rest of the advanced industrial world in moving toward more efficient lighting,” says Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., chairman of the Senate energy committee and author of the Senate measure requiring the tougher standards.
The energy bill passed the Senate last week and is expected to clear the House this week. President Bush has said he will sign it.
(18 December 2007)
E.P.A. Says 17 States Can’t Set Emission Rules for Cars
John M. Broder and Felicity Barringer
The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday denied California and 16 other states the right to set their own standards for carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles.
The E.P.A. administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, said the proposed California rules were pre-empted by federal authority and made moot by the energy bill signed into law by President Bush on Wednesday. Mr. Johnson said California had failed to make a compelling case that it needed authority to write its own standards for greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks to help curb global warming.
The decision immediately provoked a heated debate over its scientific basis and whether political pressure was applied by the automobile industry to help it escape the proposed California regulations. Officials from the states and numerous environmental groups vowed to sue to overturn the edict.
(20 December 2007)
Climate Sanctions Sought Against US
Judy Dempsey, International Herald Tribune via The Boston Globe
BERLIN – The Social Democrats are calling for sanctions on energy-intensive US export products if the Bush administration continues to obstruct international agreements on climate protection, the party’s leading environmental specialist said yesterday.1219 02The move, after the United Nations climate conference last week in Bali, Indonesia, has won strong support from the Greens and other leftist groupings in the European Parliament. Those factions will renew their bid to impose such levies when the Parliament reconvenes next month.
It also signals a big effort by the Social Democrats to take the initiative on the environment and perhaps reshape it as a foreign policy issue that could affect relations between Berlin and Washington.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has taken the lead on climate change, both domestically and internationally, leaving her junior coalition partners, the Social Democrats, frustrated. The opposition Greens have also lost ground on an issue they had long dominated.
(19 December 2007)
Also at Common Dreams.
