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China Plans to Pass the U.S. on Fuel Economy

In the past few months Chinese officials have announced plans to impose stringent, new fuel-economy standards on cars and trucks produced in their country. The standards are expected to be tougher than those in the United States. "It's a big deal when a developing country comes along and institutes regulations that go beyond those of a developed country like the United States," said Amanda Sauer, an economist at the World Resources Institute (WRI). Fuel economy standards are not the only example of China's recent efforts to tighten up environmental regulations. In the past few years the country adopted tough pollution restrictions for vehicles. These standards are on par with European regulations from the 1990s, and officials plan to catch up with European standards by the end of the next decade. In addition, China recently phased out leaded gasoline in less than three years. But transportation experts point out that China's decision to institute new environmental regulations is not necessarily driven by an overwhelming concern for the environment. "This is about national security — Chinese officials want to curb the country's growing dependence on oil imports from the Middle East," said Dr. Lee Schipper, director of research at WRI's EMBARQ center […]

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Energy Bill Gambit Fails, but Supporters Expect Eventual Success

The latest Senate gambit to pass a major piece of the energy bill failed yesterday when the Senate fell 11 votes short on a cloture motion that would have allowed final debate and a vote on passage of the corporate tax bill, to which the $13 billion energy tax package has been attached. The 49-48 vote was on the question of limiting debate on S. 1637, the corporate tax bill. It was the first energy-related vote since the Senate rejected the energy bill in its H.R. 6 incarnation last November. But it will not be the last time the energy bill comes up for a vote. The combined corporate tax/energy tax bill is likely to come up for another cloture vote after the Senate returns from its recess on April 20, by which time negotiators are expected to have reached some agreement on how many Democratic amendments to include in the final debate. Indeed, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) said yesterday he fully expects there to be as many as two more cloture votes on the matter to get the bill past the Senate.

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First Public Hydrogen Station to be Built at LA Airport

The nation's first compressed-hydrogen fueling station for public use will be built at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) as the result of a lease approved today by the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners. The lease calls for Praxair, Inc. of Danbury, Conn., to design, engineer, equip, construct and operate a 600-square-foot facility that will be a prototype of a commercial automobile fueling station. The $1,580,048 state-of-the-art fueling station will be the first facility in the United States to showcase the generation, compression, storage and dispensing of compressed-hydrogen fuel in a limited-production capacity, retail-friendly environment. Praxair is funding construction by spending $550,000 of its own funds, and will receive grants of $351,000 from the South Coast Air Quality Management District, of $499,048 from the U.S. Department of Energy, and $180,000 from British Petroleum. The new fueling station will support the recent introduction of hydrogen-fuel-cell demonstration vehicles by major automotive manufacturers, as well as LAWA's integration of hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles into its own fleet. Currently, more than 50 percent of LAWA's vehicle fleet is comprised of alternative-fuel vehicles and LAWA is currently in negotiations to obtain demonstration hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles for its fleet. The new facility also will serve other Los Angeles City […]

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Mendocino's GMO Vote Sparks Action

On March 2, 2004, Mendocino County, California voters banned production of genetically modified (GMO) crops and animals there. Mendocino is the first county in the U.S to implement such a ban, inspiring people across the U.S. and the world to follow suit. Indeed, halfway across the world, a major agricultural states in Australia, including Western Australia, Tasmania and Victoria, passed, or will soon pass, GE crop bans. Monsanto and its GMO peers, of course, don’t like the idea. The Organic Consumers Association reports the biotech lobby will soon introduce a bill in California to nullify the Mendocino ban and make it illegal for other California counties to pass similar laws. Allan Noe, Vice-President of Crop Life International, a front group for Monsanto and corporate agribusiness, told the San Francisco Chronicle on March 30, “We’re looking at a number of things to remedy the situation… a court challenge to Mendocino’s ban, an attempt to pass state legislation to prevent counties passing such bans or persuade the federal government, which regulates biotech products, to halt local bans.”Monsanto is pressuring Canada to approve its GMO wheat and had said it would not press the U.S. for approval until Canadian regulatory officials were ready […]

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