News

Special holiday SEVA meeting

SPECIAL NOTICE: The normal Tuesday Dec 13th meeting has been Rescheduled for Dec 11th Special Holiday SEVA Meeting in Kent!

2007 energy bill, raising CAFE standards?

• 2007.12.27 - autobloggreen.com - Sen. Boxer invites EPA head to testify January 10
• 2007.12.27 - csmonitor.com - Who should regulate vehicle emissions? - Schwarzenegger and the Bush administration duke it out over who has the right to regulate tailpipe emissions.
• 2007.12.20 - nytimes.com E.P.A. Says 17 States Can’t Set Emission Rules
• 2007.12.19 - plugsandcars.blogspot.com - EPA Says No: Dems Get Rolled Again
• 2007.12.12 - thecarconnection.com - Fed. Court Rules Calif. Can Set Own Emissions
• 2007.12.12 - autobloggreen.com - Carmakers' lawsuit thrown out, judge rules California can regulate tailpipe emissions

Wa. State Climate Mitigation Plans

2007.12.21 - http://www.ecy.wa.gov/climatechange/CATdocs/122107_1_recommendations.pdf

Here is WA states draft of what they plan to do for climate change. It's open for public comment until Jan 10th, so if we want to suggest anything we better get going. It's a long document and they have mentioned PHEV's, but not pure EV's. I don't know if it is possible to convince them to make a bigger push for EV's, but they could really cut GHG emissions by pushing this area. They also are looking to reduce foreign oil imports which EV's can accoplish, especially with our hydro power availability.

Are we going to comment as a group or individually, or both? Only 10% PHEV's by 2020 means the world is in for deep trouble IMHO.

Below are some excerpts from the overall general plan which includes PHEV's:

All five of the TWG (technical working group) sectors present significant opportunities for emissions reductions and removals, as shown in Figure 5. Some highlights are outlined here, and more discussion is provided in Section V. Not surprisingly, the transportation sector, which accounts for nearly half the State’s emissions, offers significant emissions reduction potential through increasing vehicle and transportation system efficiency, and reducing vehicle travel from transit, community design, and other measures. Alternative vehicle fuels can also play a major role in the transportation sector by 2020, through a low carbon fuel standard and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle incentives, as well as through the agriculture and forestry sector, where the CAT recommends goals for producing 250 million gallons of liquid fuels from biomass by 2020. Another major contributor to potential emissions savings in the agriculture and forestry sectors by 2020 is avoiding the conversion of farm and forest lands, and the resulting loss of carbon stored in trees and soil. Expanding recycling, reuse, and source reduction of municipal waste accounts for about half the emissions reductions in the agriculture/waste column shown. Improvements in building energy efficiency and community design, increasing natural gas efficiency programs, and increasing efficiency standards account for a significant fraction of the emissions reduction shown for the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. In the energy supply sector, increasing the contribution of renewable and combined heat and power sources are the principal sources of quantified emission reductions shown.

NO. 6 recommendation:

Acceleration and Integration of Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) Use (T-10) speeds up the deployment of PHEV technology, removes barriers to more rapid adoption, creates initial incentives, and provides for the integration of PHEVs with other energy systems. This strategy aims for PHEVs to account for 10% of cars, SUVs and small trucks’ VMT statewide by 2020. Improvements to Freight Railroads and Intercity Passenger Railroads (T-6) includes expanded use of anti-idle technologies and practices would reduce locomotive idling.