Bill Aims to Cut Emissions with Cap-and-Trade Plan

This story appears in the April 6 print edition of Transport Topics.

Two senior House Democratic leaders last week introduced a sweeping greenhouse gas bill that includes a cap-and-trade program and would expand motor carriers’ use of SmartWay technologies.

The bill’s sponsors, Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), said it would reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and create energy-related jobs,

The 648-page American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, would initiate a cap-and-trade program aimed mainly at stationary sources, such as electricity generating plants, and promote renewable sources of energy and carbon-capture technology, Waxman and Markey said in a joint statement on March 31.

However, the measure was unclear on whether heavy trucks would be included in the cap-and-trade system, said Glen Kedzie, environmental affairs counsel for American Trucking Associations.

“You see a peppering of fleets in the legislation, you see a lot of mention of SmartWay, you see heavy-duty vehicle language in here, and you see regulations that are going to kick in in a very short period of time,” Kedzie said. “But it’s not crystal clear if we’re in or out.”

One of the big questions the measure raises is how it might affect the Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to move forward with its own rules governing greenhouse gas emissions, Kedzie said.

Last month, EPA sent its findings to the White House, formally declaring that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare — a move that could accelerate government rulemaking related to air quality (3-30, p. 4).

Other provisions of the bill that seem to speak to the motor carrier industry include a requirement that states establish goals for reducing global warming pollution from the transportation sector and a plan for large metropolitan planning organizations to submit transportation plans to meet the states’ goals.

The draft legislation also gives EPA power to expand the SmartWay Transportation Efficiency Program as a way to increase the efficiency of highway trucking.

The bill also directs the Treasury secretary to “define and collect data on the physical and operational characteristics of the nation’s truck population, with special emphasis on data related to energy efficiency and greenhouse gas performance.” The truck data would be collected every five years.

Kedzie said the data could be a way for federal regulators to establish a data baseline for future inclusion of trucking in a cap-and-trade program.

The measure is scheduled for subcommittee hearings as soon as the week of April 20.

In a related development last week, the federal National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released its final rule increasing minimum fuel mileage requirements for passenger vehicles and light trucks for 2011 models.

The NHTSA rule said that to stay on target to reach its goal of an average of 35 miles per gallon for passenger vehicles by 2020, it was raising the 2011 passenger vehicle standard to 30.2 mpg and light truck standard to 24.1 mpg, an increase of 2.7 mpg and 0.6 mpg, respectively, from the 2010 standard.

Reaction by environmental groups to the proposed greenhouse gas legislation was generally favorable.

In a March 31 statement, the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of business and environmental organizations, said the bill is “a strong starting point for enacting legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

USCAP lauded the bill for its economywide approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions that “includes as many sectors as possible under the cap.”

The bill also would establish targets and timetables that are ambitious, recognizes the critical role of cost containment and addresses financial and regulatory barriers to carbon capture and storage deployment — including financial incentives and emission standards, USCAP said.

The draft would require every region of the country to produce 25% of its electricity from renewable sources, such as wind, biomass, the sun and geothermal, by 2025 and that emissions be reduced 20% from 2005 levels by 2020.

The draft also establishes a new low-carbon transportation fuel standard to promote advanced biofuels and other clean transportation fuels.

Texas Rep. Joe Barton, ranking Republican on the House energy panel, said the bill represents a “triumph of fear over good sense and science, and it couldn’t come at a worse time because it proposes to save the planet by sacrificing the economy.”

“Greenhouse gases are a global problem, and a global solution is an imperative,” Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, said in a statement. “The last thing Congress should want to do is offshore jobs and production to foreign manufacturers that have significantly larger carbon footprints, undermining the aim of climate change policy.”