A special commission chaired by the utility industry and automakers launched a national campaign on Wednesday to push the federal government and states to adopt more efficient vehicle technologies, while the Trump administration looks to roll back regulations that would do just that.
The nonpartisan Alliance to Save Energy’s 50×50 Commission on U.S. Transportation Sector Efficiency, which includes a broad coalition of industry, state regulators, and environmental groups, released a set of recommendations in a report, calling on policymakers “to act urgently” to transform the transportation sector.
“Technology is at the core of every transformation, and is particularly central to reimagining mobility and transportation,” said Bert Van Hoof, partner group manager at Microsoft, and a member of the commission.
Van Hoof said industry has become “impatient with the current pace of progress.”
The commission’s policies are geared toward improving the U.S. transportation system’s energy use by 50 percent by 2050. That goal doesn’t only apply to cars and trucks, but to all of the nation’s transportation network, including public buses and rail.
The report is being rolled out the same week that the Environmental Protection Agency is holding public hearings on its proposed rule to roll back fuel economy regulations from the stricter targets set by the Obama administration.
The report doesn’t address the Trump administration’s regulatory proposal directly, but it does recommend that policymakers “[s]upport policies that improve the efficiency of all vehicle types, i.e., fuel economy standards, accelerating inefficient vehicle turnover, and encouraging interagency collaborations to advance key technologies.”
The commission warned in a statement that the U.S. could “fall behind foreign competitors if federal, state, and local policymakers don’t act to adopt the policy recommendations.”
The 50×50 Commission, chaired by Scott Keogh, president of Audi America, and Dean Seavers, president of utility giant National Grid, also includes public officials from both sides of the aisle on the commission.
Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto is a commission member on the Democratic side, and Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price represents Republicans.
The commission also includes the big Southeastern coal utility Southern Company, as well as the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council, and state energy regulators and others from the automotive and utility sectors.
General Motors, which also serves on the commission, says that it intends for the recommendations to help usher in a transportation system that produces zero emissions and experiences zero driver fatalities. The company sees those goals achieved through policies that support driverless electric cars, ride sharing and services like Uber, and other Internet-connected technologies.
“Autonomous, electric, shared and connected vehicles will fuel this transformation,” said Dan Turton, public policy vice president at GM, who serves on the commission. “Combined, they will provide customers with safer, better and more sustainable vehicles.”
The commission is calling to raise levels of efficiency, but to do it in a way that doesn’t only rely on the EPA and Department of Transportation fuel economy regulations that focus on improving the auto industry’s fleetwide fuel-economy averages over time.
Instead, it sees extending federal incentives and tax credits for electric cars and their charging infrastructure as one way to get more advanced cars and trucks on the road, while looking for policies that boost research and seek to innovate transportation.
But electric cars aren’t the only focus. Natural gas cars and trucks could also be part of the 50×50 plan, especially if the natural gas is produced from renewable sources like waste water treatment plants and landfills.
Again, that prospect hinges on federal and state incentives, according to the commission’s report.
It also calls for redesigning the federal Highway Trust Fund to take into consideration these new vehicles when rebalancing infrastructure investments.
“The Highway Trust Fund currently lacks sufficient resources to support critical infrastructure needs, and the ‘gas tax’ model is likely to become increasingly insufficient as [alternative fuel vehicles] increase in market penetration,” the report explains.
What the report means is that collecting taxes from gasoline use will decline as more cars that use less of the fuel are on the road.
The commission doesn’t offer a solution, but only a caveat for Congress, which has the authority to change the way the highway trust is funded.
“This is a central problem that requires a resolution, but it will be important to ensure that the resolution identified does not undermine the pathway to 50×50,” reads the report.
