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AUTO GROUP MAKES CASE: A top U.S. automotive trade group is taking aim at the Biden administration’s new vehicle emissions targets, saying in a new memo that the proposal is “neither reasonable nor achievable” and risks limiting consumer choice, disadvantaging the auto industry, and triggering “substantial” price hikes for all types of vehicles.
In a draft memo, slated to be sent to the EPA July 5, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation outlined five of its top concerns with the EPA’s 2027-2032 vehicle emissions targets, which seek to cut emissions by 56% compared to the existing 2026 requirements.
AAI, which represents GM, Volkswagen, Hyundai, and others, called the proposal a “de facto battery electric vehicle mandate,” and pushed for the administration to make several key changes to its current proposal. Among them:
Don’t write off plug-in hybrids: AAI notes that the EPA’s expected emissions rules project that 60% of all new vehicle sales in 2030 will be battery electric vehicles (BEVs)—an amount that increases to 67% by 2032. That’s a sharp uptick from the 50% of EV sales by the end of the decade that the administration had targeted in 2021—a goal that crucially also included plug-in hybrid vehicles, which were taken out of the equation under the EPA’s new rules.
Whether the U.S. can satisfy its own critical minerals and battery processing targets is another looming question: Many in the transport world see the plug-in hybrid as a valuable “transition vehicle” of sorts, with less critical mineral demand compared to BEVs that could be crucial to the U.S. in the near-term. Tom Moerenhout, a professor and researcher at Columbia University’s SIPA Center on Energy Policy, told Breanne he expects plug-in hybrids to become more popular as the administration’s ambitious EV goals move from abstraction to reality.
“If the challenge here is the amount of minerals that we have—and the fact that a lot of these BEVs have [larger, more critical mineral-intensive] batteries—why is there not a bigger role for plug-in hybrids?” he said in an interview.
Don’t assume perfect conditions outside the vehicle: On a graph, EPA’s proposed ramp-up for BEVs “looks like a hockey stick,” AAI president and CEO John Bozzella said yesterday. It also models for near-perfect conditions—assuming residential and public charging, critical mineral availability, and grid capacity can all be scaled up to meet the demand.
There are roughly 130,000 public charging stations in the U.S. to date, amounting to around one for every 29 EVs. McKinsey has estimated that even reaching 50% of new EV sale penetration by 2030 will require an additional 1.2 million public charging stations, and 28 million private EV stations. And that’s not even taking into consideration the expected new targets.
Don’t siphon finite resources from EVs to govern ICE vehicles: The EPA also sets new rules for gas-powered vehicles, despite the fact that certain states, led by California, have either banned or discouraged sales of ICE vehicles (California’s ban on new gas-powered vehicles begins in 2035). That puts automakers in a tough position: to invest even more capital in electrification, or to fulfill the agency’s more stringent requirements for gas-powered vehicles. Vehicle tailpipe emissions are already regulated by three U.S. agencies and four sets of regulations—and it would behoove the administration to remember that every additional dollar spent on ICE technology is a dollar not spent on EVs.
“At the very least, if an automaker complies with the EPA’s greenhouse gas emissions rules, they shouldn’t be at risk of violating the Transportation Department’s coming CAFE rules,” which subject them to significant civil penalties, Bozzella said.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writer Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep). Email [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
WILDFIRE SMOKE LATEST: Smoke from Canada’s wildfires continued to choke large swaths of the Northeast and Midwest today, putting more than 100 million people under air quality alerts, and blanketing the D.C. and New York areas in haze for the second time this month.
Models suggest air quality is expected to remain poor through tomorrow. In the meantime, health officials have urged individuals in affected areas to remain indoors and to limit their outdoor exposure as much as possible.
Why it’s dangerous: Wildfire carries a mix of toxic air pollutants and particulate matter, including dust, soot, and ash—which accounts for roughly 80% of smoke from wildfires. Exposure to wildfire smoke is “basically the same as tobacco smoke, without the nicotine,” Dr. John Balmes, a pulmonologist and professor of medicine at the University of California, Berkeley, told Breanne.
This fine particulate matter can also travel into the airways and settle in the lungs, causing irritation and other adverse effects, especially for people with underlying health conditions.
Instances of heart attacks and heart arrhythmia are more common after wildfire exposure, particularly in elderly populations. Exposure has also been linked to strokes and instances of sudden cardiac death.
Dr. Mary Prunicki, director of air pollution and health research at the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University, told Breanne that all individuals—not just immunocompromised people—can experience serious health consequences from exposure to wildfire smoke, which can travel thousands of miles.
Here’s more on the risks associated with wildfire smoke exposure.
U.S. ENERGY JOBS GREW 3.8% LAST YEAR, ENERGY DEPARTMENT SAYS: U.S. energy sector jobs grew by 3.8% last year, according to a new report from the Department of Energy, outpacing overall U.S. job growth, and bringing the nation’s energy workforce to more than 8.1 million.
The growth was underpinned primarily by new clean energy jobs, which increased in every U.S state and accounted for more than 84% of net new electric power generation jobs, according to the report. In total, the U.S. added 114,000 new jobs in wind, solar, nuclear, and grid technologies— a 3.9% increase from the previous year. Jobs related to zero emissions vehicles, meanwhile, saw nearly 21% growth.
The states that saw the largest increases in clean energy jobs were California, West Virginia, and Texas, which added 13,000 jobs, 7,000 jobs, and 5,100 jobs in the clean energy sector, respectively.
Fossil fuel jobs also jumped: Oil and gas industry jobs also saw a sharp increase in 2022, due to high demand and supply concerns relating to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Natural gas jobs increased by 24% last year—adding more than 51,100 jobs to the workforce—and the petroleum fuel industry added more than 58,000 positions.
“This new data from the 2023 U.S. Energy and Employment Report shows strong growth in energy jobs, and as investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act really start to gear up,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) said in a statement. “I expect we’ll see this growth accelerate over the next few years.” Read DOE’s full report here.
NORWAY APPROVES MORE THAN $18 BILLION OF OIL AND GAS PROJECTS: Norway’s energy ministry has approved more than $18 billion in new oil and gas projects, seeking to ramp up production and help the EU meet demand amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The projects include 19 new developments on the Norwegian continental shelf, including the Yggdrasil multi-use field in the North Sea, Norway’s oil ministry said yesterday, with other investments dedicated to building out and recovering existing gas fields and oil projects on the continental shelf.
Once operational, the Yggdrasil project is expected to produce roughly 650 million barrels of oil equivalent, making it one of the biggest development projects in the area in recent years.
Norway has risen to become the EU’s top supplier of natural gas following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year and its subsequent throttling of natural gas deliveries to the bloc.
“Norway is the only net exporter of oil and gas in Europe, and by implementing these projects we ensure new production from the latter half of the 2020s, so that we can maintain high Norwegian deliveries,” Norwegian Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Aasland said in a statement.
NEW CRES PAPER MAKES THE CASE FOR AN IMPORT CARBON FEE TO COUNTER CHINA: The Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions released a white paper today endorsing an import carbon fee to help the U.S. and its allies counter China’s energy supply chain dominance, citing the policy as one of several necessary to reduce global dependence on Beijing.
Since the U.S. and its allies cannot outpace China’s industrial supply chain, which is decades ahead of the West, the paper argues that it must instead work to create a “new trade regime” that holds China accountable for its pollution.
Since China’s supply chain is three times as carbon-intensive as the U.S. supply chain, the paper argues that passing an emissions performance fee, or otherwise requiring importers to meet the same environmental standards and economic fees as the U.S. holds for itself, would give America opportunities to work with emerging markets and poor economies, which need to improve energy access.
Additionally, U.S. companies’ success in this space will “undoubtedly” require permitting and regulatory reforms to allow greater extraction of domestic resources; as well as increased U.S. refining and processing capacity.
“Western nations have found themselves at a significant economic disadvantage with Chinese dominance of global supply chains in strategic sectors – upstream, midstream, and downstream,” said the report’s author, George David Banks, a senior energy and climate fellow at CRES and adviser in both the Bush and Trump administrations. “America will need to work closely with its allies and partners to wrest control of critical supply chains from China and counter the CCP’s growing influence in the developing world,” he added. Read the paper in full here.
The Rundown
E&E News Oregon lawmakers make a play for more federal climate money
Wall Street Journal The race to build a better air conditioner
