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The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES)

On March 31, 2009 House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman and Representative Markey of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee released a draft of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES). According to the sponsors, the legislation is intended to create millions of new clean energy jobs, save consumers hundreds of billions of dollars in energy costs, enhance America’s energy independence, and cut global warming pollution. To meet these goals, the legislation has four titles:

1. A clean energy title that promotes renewable sources of energy, carbon capture and sequestration technologies, low-carbon fuels, clean electric vehicles, and the smart grid and electricity transmission;

2. An energy efficiency title that increases energy efficiency across all sectors of the economy, including buildings, appliances, transportation, and industry;

3. A global warming title that places limits on emissions of heat-trapping pollutants; and

4. A transitioning title that protects U.S. consumers and industry and promotes green jobs during the transition to a clean energy economy.

With respect to clean fuels and vehicles, the draft establishes a new low-carbon transportation fuel standard to promote advanced biofuels and other clean transportation fuels. It authorizes financial support in the form of grants or loan guarantees to cities, states, or private companies for large-scale demonstrations of electric vehicles. A related provision authorizes financial support to car companies to retool their plants to build electric vehicles.

With respect to fuel economy, the draft directs the President to work with the relevant agencies and California to harmonize, to the maximum extent possible, the federal fuel economy standards, any emission standards promulgated by EPA, and the California standards for light-duty vehicles.

With respect to global warming, the draft establishes a market-based program for reducing global warming pollution from electric utilities, oil companies, large industrial sources, and other covered entities. Entities that emit less than 25,000 tons per year of CO2 are not covered by the program.

The Energy and Commerce Committee intends to complete consideration of the legislation by Memorial Day. The preliminary schedule follows:

Week of April 20: Energy and Environment Subcommittee Hearings Week of April 27: Energy and Environment Subcommittee Markup Period Begins Week of May 11: Full Energy and Commerce Committee Markup Period Begins

Cool Car Standard

On March 27, 2009, CARB issued a revised draft regulation that now specifies solar control requirements only for new vehicle glazing. The original proposed regulation contained requirements for both vehicle paint and windows to improve their ability to reflect heat from the sun. The intent of the paint requirements was to introduce reflective paint (currently used in architectural paints to keep houses and businesses cool) into the automotive arena. Based on input from the automotive industry, paint, pigment suppliers, and comments from a public workshop held on March 12th, ARB staff has determined that a clear path to achieve solar reflectivity for the darker colors has not yet been identified. CARB plans to address the paint-related portion of the proposal in a future regulatory action.

With the March 27, 2009 draft, CARB has also changed the glazing requirements from a reflective (Rds) to a Total Solar Transmission (Tts) specification. In an effort to get the newest draft of the regulation out to stakeholders some numerical values are not currently indicated in the draft regulation. The numerical values will be specified in the final draft of the regulation which will be released 45-days prior to the June 25-26, 2009 Board Hearing.

MY2011 CAFE Standards

On March 27, 2009, NHTSA released its rule finalized MY2011 CAFE standards. NHTSA estimates that the rule will raise the industry-wide combined average to 27.3 mpg.
Based on the product plan information provided by manufacturers in response to the May 2008 request for information and the incorporation of publicly available supplemental data and information, NHTSA has estimated the required average fuel economy levels under the final standard for MY 2011 passenger cars and light trucks as follows:

Download Stds tables

The rule will take effect 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. Petitions for reconsideration must be received within 45 days after the date of publication. NHTSA contact: Peter Feather (202) 366-0846 or Julie Abraham (202)-366-1455.

For a copy of the final rule, click here.

2009 Relative Collision Insurance Cost Information Booklet

NHTSA has published its 2009 Relative Collision Insurance Cost Information Booklet. Car Dealers are required by law to maintain a sufficient number of copies of the booklet in dealer showrooms so that the booklets can be given to prospective purchasers of new vehicles. These booklets must be available beginning March 30, 2009. To ensure consumer awareness of the availability of this booklet, dealers may choose to follow procedures similar to those used to display EPA’s Gas Mileage Guide or they may use wall posters or other media displays in the dealership to announce that the information is available.

Designated Seating Position

NHTSA's new laboratory test procedure for determining the number designated seating positions in a row (TP-DSP-00) was published February 27, 2009 and is available online by clicking here. The DSP definition is provided in Title 49, of the Code of Federal Regulation, Part 571.3 (49 CRF 571.3). The definition is not a Federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS), but the term DSP is used in other FMVSSs. NHTSA amended the definition for DSPs through a final rule (73 FR 58887) issued on October 8, 2008. The revised definition becomes effective on September 1, 2010.

Cash for Clunkers

On March 17, 2009, Representative Sutton (D-OH) introduced the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) Act (H.R. 1550) which provides consumer purchase incentives for turning in vehicles that are 8 years or older to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles or to obtain a transit voucher. In the legislation, new car purchases that qualify for this incentive must achieve a minimum of 27 miles per gallon on highways, while new trucks must achieve a minimum of 24 mpg for highway driving. Voucher values would range from $3,000 to $5,000 depending on the new vehicle’s fuel efficiency. Vehicles must have an MSRP of less than $35,000, achieve Tier 2, Bin 5 federal vehicle emission standards and be manufactured in the U.S., or in North America. A $7,500 voucher would be available for any vehicle assembled in the U.S. that has a minimum city fuel economy label value of 100 mpg, beginning after the 2010 calendar year.

Recovery Act-Transportation Electrification (FOA DE-FOA-0000028)

DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), on behalf of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) Office of Vehicle Technologies (OVT) Program, is seeking applications for grants to establish development, demonstration, evaluation, and education projects to accelerate the market introduction and penetration of advanced electric drive vehicles. DOE’s goal is for the vehicles and electric technologies to achieve a fast market introduction and reach high volume production.

There are four program areas of interest:

Area of Interest 1: Electric Drive Vehicle Demonstration and Evaluation Area of Interest 2: Transportation Sector Electrification Area of Interest 3: Combined Proposals for Area of Interest 1 and 2 Area of Interest 4: Advanced Electric Drive Vehicle Education Program

Qualifying vehicles include light, medium or heavy duty EVs, PHEVs, or FCVs. Motorcycles, trikes and NEVs are excluded.

Approximately $378 million dollars is expected to be available for all Areas of Interest for new awards under this announcement for Round 1 and possibly Round 2 contingent upon the outcome of Round 1 and the availability of appropriated funds.

Awards are anticipated as follows:

Area of Interest 1: 2 to 10 awards in the $20M to $100M size range Area of Interest 2: 2 to 4 awards in the $10M to $75M size range Area of Interest 3: TBD awards in the $30M to $175M size range Area of Interest 4: 5 to 20 awards in the $500k to $10M size range

Awards will run 36-48 months.

All types of entities are eligible to apply as a prime applicant (Including, but not limited to state government agencies, local government agencies, institution of higher education, other non-profit organizations, and for profit organizations), except other Federal agencies, Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) Contractors, and nonprofit organizations described in section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 that engaged in lobbying activities after December 31, 1995.

25 to 50% cost sharing is required for Areas of Interest 1, 2 and 3. 20% cost sharing is required for AOI 4.

Applications are due May 13, 2009.

For more information, go to www.fedconnect.net and search under FOA DE-FOA-0000028.

Carbon Reduction of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles

According to the Department of Energy, passenger car plug-in hybrids with a 10 miles all electric driving range (PHEV10s) produce about 29% fewer carbon emissions than a conventional vehicle, when plugged into an outlet connected to the typical U.S. grid. When PHEV10s are charged using power generated completely from coal, carbon emissions are about 25% less than those of a conventional vehicle. The use of light truck PHEV10s reduces emissions by 28% when charged on a typical grid and 23% when charged on power generated from coal. The carbon reductions are greater as the length the vehicle can travel on electricity increases. For more information, click here.

CAFE

Later this week, NHTSA will publish a notice in the Federal Register announcing that, consistent with President Obama’s January 26, 2009 memorandum requesting that NHTSA complete its rulemaking in two phases, NHTSA intends to re-examine the issue of preemption in the context of its forthcoming rulemaking to establish CAFE standards for model year 2012 and later years. NHTSA will not address the issue in the forthcoming final rule establishing CAFE standards for MY 2011 nor include any provisions addressing preemption in the in the amendments made by that rule to the Code of Federal Regulations.

Damaged Vehicle Information Act

Representative Stearns (R-FL) has introduced legislation (H.R. 1257) to require the disclosure of information relating to the fair market value and safety of damaged motor vehicles. The bill would require NHTSA to issue a regulation within 270 days of enactment requiring all persons who terminate a contract related to a motor vehicle due to flood or water damage, collision, fire damage, theft and recovery, or any other circumstance that adversely affects the fair market value of the vehicle, to disclose to the public in a commercially reasonable, electronically accessible manner information related to the vehicle and the reason for the contract termination. The bill has been referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce.