Letterman,
Nice letter.
On a different subject, I had heard some wonderful things about Bush's
Freedom CAR plan or incentive or what ever you want to call it. The dude
on the radio made it sound like a great idea and I thought were were actually
making some headway. At least going in the right direction. I thought he had
a change of heart and wanted to do something that might help keep the planet
a little a cleaner.
Then I read this interesting article from the NY Times that newsman Scottman
posted over on the Porch. I found the link:
nytimes.com
It's basically a disguise to help the auto makers, perhaps.
...at least we will begin searching harder in the direction of fossil fuel substitutes...
That's a good thing.
I just wish it didn't come at the expense of the higher standards of fuel economy.
<For your listening pleasure, Clappy presses B-52 and the sound of Springsteen's
"One Step Forward, Two Steps Back" wafts through the smokey NNBM bar room...>
Anyhow, here it is:
==
U.S. Ends Car Plan on Gas Efficiency; Looks
to Fuel Cells
By NEELA BANERJEE with DANNY HAKIM
The Bush administration is walking
away from a $1.5 billion eight- year
government-subsidized project to develop
high-mileage gasoline- fueled vehicles.
Instead it is throwing its support behind a
plan that the Energy Department and the
auto industry have devised to develop
hydrogen-based fuel cells to power the cars
of the future, administration and industry
officials said yesterday.
The new effort, to be announced in Detroit
today by Energy Secretary Spencer
Abraham, aims at the eventual replacement
of the internal combustion engine. Fuel cells
use stored hydrogen and oxygen from the air
to create electricity, and the only emission
from engines they power is water vapor.
Environmentalists and some energy experts
favor the research. But critics said that the
new program would let Washington and
Detroit focus on vague, long-term aims while
avoiding the more difficult task of improving
the mileage of existing cars and sport utility
vehicles in the short term. Experts say that
commercial production of cars with fuel- cell engines is 10 to 20 years away.
With hearings scheduled in the Senate next month on a Democratic
alternative to President Bush's energy program, it has been unclear how
either party will address fuel economy standards, which are equally
unpopular with carmakers and organized labor.
Yesterday, an administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity
said that the Transportation Department would offer a proposal later this
year on tightening those standards. But he added that since any changes
would be years in the making, the fuel-cell project could make them "a
nonissue."
The original program, begun in 1993, aimed to develop affordable cars that
got 80 miles to a gallon of gasoline. Vice President Al Gore, its most vocal
backer in the Clinton administration, likened the project, known as the
Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, to the Apollo space program
in its technological complexity. In addition to about $1.5 billion in
government subsidies, the Big Three automakers — General Motors
(news/quote), Ford Motor (news/quote) and DaimlerChrysler (news/quote)
— together spent about $1 billion a year on related technologies.
The carmakers all developed prototype vehicles that got at least 70 miles a
gallon, and the project nurtured advances in aerodynamics and lighter
composite materials now used in auto manufacturing.
But none of the Big Three came close to commercial production of an
80-mile-a-gallon car. The average fuel economy of cars and trucks for sale
in the United States has, meanwhile, steadily dropped, so that this year's fleet
— with its growing proportion of sport utility vehicles — gets the worst gas
mileage in 21 years, according to the government.
The new program, called Freedom Car, will not require the automakers to
produce a fuel-cell powered vehicle, according to the Energy Department.
Energy experts expressed concern yesterday that without such clear targets,
it too would do little to alleviate the country's growing dependence on oil.
"I think fuel cells are a useful long- term goal," said Steven Nadel, executive
director of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, a
research and advocacy group in Washington. "But the big problem I have is
that the Bush administration proposal doesn't seem to address anything for
the next 10 years. There's a lot of technology that can go into cars in 2006 or
2007."
The new initiative was disclosed yesterday by The Detroit News. The
administration said it would not discuss its proposed spending on the project
until President Bush's 2003 budget proposal was released in February, but
the program it replaces was to receive $127 million in federal funds this year.
Although gasoline prices are now low, the conflict in Afghanistan has thrown
a spotlight once more on America's enormous appetite for fuel and has
renewed calls for reducing American dependence on foreign oil. The United
States, with only 5 percent of the world's population, consumes 25 percent
of its oil, mostly in the form of gasoline.
Mr. Abraham, in remarks prepared for delivery today at the North American
International Auto Show in Detroit, said the new project was "rooted in
President Bush's call, issued last May in our National Energy Plan, to reduce
American reliance on foreign oil." He added, "The eventual goal of this
research are technologies that aim to solve many of the problems associated
with our nation's reliance on petroleum to power our cars and trucks."
While the Clinton administration program focused on developing high-
mileage family sedans — vehicles that fell out of favor with consumers as the
research progressed — Mr. Abraham said the new project would give
automakers the flexibility to use the fuel-cell engines in a range of vehicles.
"We should be developing energy- efficient components that can be adapted
for use in several models throughout our fleet," he said.
The stocks of several companies that are developing fuel cells surged
yesterday on news of the administration initiative. Shares in Ballard Power
Systems (news/quote), probably the best known of these companies,
jumped 15 percent, to $34.96. FuelCell Energy (news/quote) rose 22
percent, to $21.85; Plug Power was up 39 percent, to close at $12.04.
The Big Three automakers are expected to introduce so-called hybrid
vehicles, using gasoline-electric engines, by 2004. Toyota (news/quote) and
Honda — which did not share in the Clinton-era program's subsidies —
already have hybrids getting at least 40 miles a gallon.
The auto industry has steadily resisted government-mandated increases in
fuel economy, with some carmakers arguing that such requirements would
divert investment from fuel-cell research. Government standards, unchanged
for more than a decade, require each automaker's cars to average 27.5 miles
a gallon and light trucks — including pickups, minivans and sport utility
vehicles — to average 20.7 miles a gallon.
Kara Saul Rinaldi, the deputy policy director for the Alliance to Save
Energy, a bipartisan advocacy group in Washington, said that she welcomed
the investment in fuel cells but hoped the administration would explore
improvements in fuel-economy standards. "We're looking at long-term
technology when we haven't made the first step," she said. "Raising
fuel-economy standards is the first step." |
