Energy -- The Road To Slashing Emissions

May 19, 2009

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, and Ryan Powers

ENERGY

The Road To Slashing Emissions

As some of you may have noticed, we recently made changes to The Progress Report. We have decided to remove the "Good News" and "State Watch" sections and replace them with a longer, reformatted "Blog Watch." However, the content of those two former sections won't be completely gone. We plan to incorporate good news and state news into the other sections of The Progress Report more frequently. We love receiving feedback, so please e-mail us and let us know what you think.

Today, President Obama will unveil "the first-ever national emission limits for cars and trucks," a move that Sierra Club President Carl Pope says is "one of the most significant efforts undertaken by any president, ever, to end our addiction to oil and seriously slash our global warming emissions." Daniel Becker of the Safe Climate Campaign calls it "single biggest step the American government has ever taken to cut greenhouse-gas emissions." The Obama administration will also raise fuel efficiency targets so that by 2016, cars and light trucks will have an average mile requirement of 35.5 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2016. For 2009 model cars, the average fuel efficiency is 25 mpg. "The projected oil savings of this program over the life of this program is 1.8 billion barrels of oil," announced a senior administration official on a conference call with reporters last night. "The program is also projected to achieve reductions of 900 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions under the life of the program. That is equivalent to taking 177 million cars off the road or shutting down 194 coal plants." Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Daniel J. Weiss called today's announcement a "triple play" because it will "help move America off foreign oil, save families money, and spur American businesses to take the lead in developing the job-creating, clean-energy technologies of the future."

CLEANER, MORE FUEL-EFFICIENT CARS: In 2006, cars, light trucks, and other vehicles accounted for nearly 24 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, with 94 percent as carbon dioxide. Today's announcement stems from a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that said President Bush's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had violated the Clean Air Act by failing to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. The Obama administration plans "a tailpipe emissions standard of 250 grams per mile for vehicles sold in 2016, roughly the equivalent of what would be emitted by vehicles meeting the mileage standard. Vehicles sold in 2009 are expected to emit about 380 grams per mile, industry sources said." As a result of these new emission limits and mileage standards, "cars and light trucks sold in the United States will be roughly 30 percent cleaner and more fuel-efficient by 2016." In yesterday's White House press briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that today's announcement would help end the American "crisis" in the "emission of dangerous greenhouse gases" and "our dangerous dependence on foreign oil."

GOOD NEWS FOR STATES: Under the Bush administration, states fought to impose tougher vehicle emission standards on their own. But in 2008, the White House pushed EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson -- against the advice of EPA staffers -- to deny California a waiver that would have allowed 16 states to implement these landmark reductions. Basically, the Bush administration refused to regulate greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously forbidding other states to do so on their own. The Washington Post reports that "[s]ources close" to the Obama administration say it will now be issuing California a waiver at the end of June, but state officials have agreed to "not exercise it in light of the new national standards," which are very close to what California had proposed. Even more important, California's stringent plans for a 30 percent reduction in emissions will now be extended to the rest of the country. While California made modest concessions in today's deal, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) called it "good news for all of us who have fought long and hard to reduce global warming pollution, create clean energy jobs, and reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil."

A BROAD COALITION: At today's announcement, the Obama administration will be joined by "groups that are normally aligned against each other," as Gibbs told reporters yesterday. There will be environmentalists, state officials such as Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) and Jennifer Granholm (D-MI), union officials, and industry executives. "It launches a new beginning," added David McCurdy, president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. "The president has succeeded in bringing three regulatory bodies, 15 states, a dozen automakers and many environmental groups to the table." In fact, the auto industry plans to drop all lawsuits challenging stricter emission standards because the Obama administration's plan provides "the single national efficiency standard they have long desired, a reasonable timetable to meet it and the certainty they need to proceed with product development plans." But McCurdy told The Progress Report that national standards are only the first step. The next steps require "a comprehensive mix of support for new technologies, investment in infrastructure, and smart regulation." "After all, it's going to take a lot of efficient vehicles to make a dent in total emissions," he added. "So, we hope politicians will commit to providing real incentives that enable consumers to quickly adopt those newer, more efficient vehicles."

EDUCATION -- DUNCAN HIGHLIGHTS SLOW PACE OF STATES APPLYING FOR EDUCATION FUNDS: Yesterday, the Department of Education announced that, thus far, it had awarded nearly $13 billion in funding in State Fiscal Stabilization Funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to just 13 states. According to the Department, another nine states and Puerto Rico have applied for funding. In the Department's press release, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sounded the alarm over the slow pace of states applying for the funding, saying, "We have an urgent need to reform our schools and prevent teacher layoffs." "The Department is turning around applications within nine days on average," Duncan said. "States that have not yet applied need to do so now." Speaking at a Center for American Progress event yesterday on "Resource Allocation, Reinvestment, and Education Reform," Duncan noted that "states have been slow to apply for the money" and that there are "30 states that haven't even applied for these resources yet," despite a July 1 deadline. "We don't want to be laying off hundreds of thousands of teachers and taking a step backwards," said Duncan. "And so it's really critical to me that states step up to the plate if they haven't applied to make sure they have a chance to access unprecedented resources." The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law by President Obama in February, allocated over $100 billion in education investment, $44 billion of which became available in April. To receive the money, states need to commit to advancing education reform in four specific areas laid out by the Department of Education.

A Pentagon spokesperson said yesterday that "he did not know how long the Worldwide Intelligence Update cover sheets quoted from the Bible," but that the Pentagon no longer includes such quotes on the cover of the daily reports. The officer originally responsible for including the quotes, Air Force Maj. Gen. Glen Shaffer, retired in 2003.

President Obama will expand a Bush-era program with the goal of "checking the immigration status of virtually every person booked into local jails." Over the next four years, the program is estimated to "result in a tenfold increase in illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes and identified for deportation."

"The Obama administration has decided to accept an appeals-court ruling that could undermine the military's ban on service members found to be gay." Though the administration let pass a May 3 deadline to appeal a lower-court ruling on the blanket application of Don't Ask, Don't Tell to the Supreme Court, administration officials said they will continue to defend the law when it is returned to a district court.

Former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad is in talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai about assuming "a powerful, unelected position inside the Afghan government." Khalilzad, an American citizen who was born in Afghanistan, had considered challenging Karzai for the presidency, but is now considering a role "described as the chief executive officer of Afghanistan."

Former President Bill Clinton has been named a special envoy to Haiti on behalf of the United Nations in an effort "to raise global attention to the country's halting efforts to rebuild following a string of storms that wreaked havoc on the Haitian economy." "It is an honor," Clinton said, adding, "Last year's natural disasters took a great toll, but Haiti's government and people have the determination and ability to 'build back better.'"

With the Employee Free Choice Act languishing in Congress, labor groups say they "have been outmaneuvered so far on their top priority by their opponents in the business community." "'We were outspent, outhustled and outorganized,' said one chagrined union advisor who was not authorized to speak by name."

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that John Ashcroft and Robert Mueller may not be sued by a Pakistani man seized after 9/11 who alleged harsh treatment because of his religion and ethnicity. Reversing a Second Circuit decision, the court said that "top officials were not liable for the allegedly discriminatory actions of their subordinates unless they had ordered the measures."

And finally: Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA) took to the House floor last week to sing the praises of American Idol contestant Adam Lambert, who is the favorite to win the show's finale on Wednesday. Commending Lambert for "his amazing journey" and for being "such a great star on American Idol," Bilbray read his name into the congressional record last week. "As one of Adam's favorite artists, Lenny Kravitz, once said: 'I just need to know that I did the very best I could and that I was true to myself," Bilbray noted. "Adam, we will be rooting for you and looking forward to your next unique and creative performance."

The health care crisis encourages companies to hire undocumented workers.

The case for making the stress tests permanent -- and for putting the banks through a bit of stress.

Obama's embrace of Bush terrorism policies is celebrated as "centrism."

Are insurance companies planning on double-crossing Obama?

A newly disclosed memo shows Bush was presented with a legal alternative to his torture program in 2005.

What do George Will's hatred of jeans and his hatred of Portland, OR have in common?

Marc Lynch argues that today's newspapers demonstrate that "Arabs get the message on the Obama-Netanyahu meeting."

"You can't have a real conversation about abortion if you're afraid to use the word. ... [Obama] not surprisingly failed to mention it [in his Notre Dame commencement speech]."
-- Fox News contributor Tucker Carlson, 5/18/09

VERSUS

"How does each of us remain firm in our principles, and fight for what we consider right, without, as Father John said, demonizing those with just as strongly held convictions on the other side? And, of course, nowhere do these questions come up more powerfully than on the issue of abortion."
-- President Obama, 5/17/09, Notre Dame commencement speech

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