Printed 10/19/16 Page of

Some mileage gains probably can be achieved without reducing car size. And many motorists could scale down their vehicle sizes from monstrous to mid-sized without significant personal sacrifice.

But, first and foremost, Congress needs to get out of neutral gear and mandate significantly higher fuel efficiency standards.
http://www.earthjustice.org/news/display.html?ID=423 is theoriginalsource; picked up by:

http://ens-news.com/ens/aug2002/2002-08-08-06.asp

In ruling on a lawsuit brought by environmental groups earlier this year, Federal District Court Judge William Alsup found that all 15 federal agencies charged in the suit have violated the Energy Policy Act's alternative fuel vehicle acquisition requirements in at least some years. All of the agencies have further violated the Act by failing to publicly disclose whether they had acquired such vehicles through annual compliance reports, Judge Alsup ruled.

The lawsuit was brought by Earthjustice on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, Bluewater Network, and the Sierra Club.

"This is a major victory for anyone who believes this nation's transportation system is dangerously addicted to petroleum including, it seems, President [George W.] Bush's father. Hopefully the federal government will finally get with the program," said Jay Tutchton, staff attorney with Earthjustice.

The Energy Policy Act, signed into law after the Gulf War by President George H.W. Bush in 1992, was designed to wean 10 percent of American transportation fuel demand from petroleum by the year 2000 and 30 percent by 2010. The Act requires all federal agencies with light duty fleet vehicles in major metropolitan areas to acquire at least 75 percent alternative fuel vehicles each year instead of traditional petroleum fueled cars and trucks.

These farm machines at the Department of Agriculture's research center in Beltsville, Maryland run on a mixture of diesel fuel and biodiesel, which is made from soybean oil. (Photo by Bob Nichols courtesy USDA)

The federal government currently has more than 600,000 vehicles in its fleet, making it the largest fleetholder in the nation. But most federal agencies have not come close to meeting these minimums, the lawsuit charged.

For example, the Department of Commerce purchased just 11 percent alternative fuel vehicles in 1998, 16 percent in 1999 and 17 percent in 2000. Even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) purchased just 35 percent alternative fuel vehicles in 1998.

Other federal agencies meet the requirements only on paper, by purchasing vehicles that are alternative fuel capable, but which can also run on regular gasoline.

Judge Alsup ordered the government to prepare overdue reports of their non-compliance with the Energy Policy Act by November 26, 2002, and to make these reports available to the public over the Internet by January 31, 2003. In these reports, every federal agency must not only admit its prior failings to acquire the legally required number of AFVs, but also must submit a specific plan, including dates, by which it will come into compliance with the law.

Clean Cities program director Shelley Launey bought her compressed natural gas (CNG) powered Honda Civic GX in December 2001. (Photo courtesy National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

"These compliance plans and reports will finally set enforceable deadlines," said Tutchton. "Maybe now Bush II can enforce his father's law."

The ruling applies to the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Interior, Justice, Labor, State and Transportation, as well as the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Housing and Urban Development, EPA, General Services Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Besides helping to bring these agencies into compliance with the Energy Policy Act, Judge Alsup's ruling could also prompt new regulations requiring private and municipal fleets in major metropolitan areas to buy alternative fuel vehicles for a percentage of their fleets.

The Act required the Department of Energy (DOE) to consider a regulation extending the law's requirements to certain urban fleets, but so far, the agency has failed to do. Judge Alsup ordered both the DOE and the environmental groups to provide more information on how long the court should give the DOE to take action on the overdue regulation.

This Ford P2000 fuel cell electric vehicle combines hydrogen fuel with oxygen to create electricity, which powers the car's electric motors. (Photo courtesy National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

Alternative fuel vehicles "are available on the market," said Peter Galvin of the Center for Biological Diversity. "The federal government has no excuse for not following the law. Hopefully by exposing the failings of the government we can redirect the current national energy plan away from a drill and despoil mantra and toward cleaner future."

Alternative fuel options include rechargeable electric engines, cars that run on natural gas or ethanol, fuel cells powered by gasoline, methanol or natural gas, solar cells, and hybrid vehicles using a combination of energy sources.

Environmentalists concerned about air pollution have long touted alternative fuel vehicles as a ready way to reduce emissions from the transportation sector. Other benefits to the vehicles include lower emissions of carbon dioxide - a major greenhouse gas - and less need for oil from U.S. public lands and overseas sources.

"Burning alternative fuels as opposed to gasoline will lessen the toxic chemicals currently spewing from our tailpipes, and significantly reduce greenhouse gas pollution - the main culprit behind global warming," said Elisa Lynch of Bluewater Network.

"The U.S. buys more than a half million barrels of oil a day from Iraq," added Daniel Becker, director of Sierra Club's global warming and energy program. "Instead we should be using alternative fuels and increasing the fuel economy of our cars, trucks and [sport utility vehicles]. It's crucial that the administration stop breaking this law because it moves us closer to reducing our dependence on oil."
\http://www.bluewaternetwork.org/press_releases/pr2002mar01_ss_ferryfuelcell.pdf

SF Bay Area gets $100K grant 2/02 for Fuel Cell Ferry

By JOHN O'DELL, LOS ANGELES TIMES STAFF WRITER October 8 2002

The city of Los Angeles on Monday became the first retail customer in the U.S. for fuel-cell-powered passenger vehicles, announcing that it will lease five of the hydrogen-fueled, zero-emission cars from Torrance-based American Honda Motor Co. by the end of the year.

The deal was announced by Mayor James K. Hahn, who called it an important step in the development of fuel-cell technology.

Tests such as the Honda-Los Angeles program are considered critical for putting the vehicles on the road and subjecting them to real-world stresses, said Tom Elliott, executive vice president of American Honda.

City employees will begin learning immediately how to operate and service the Honda FCX fuel-cell car, which has been certified by the California Air Resources Board and the federal Environmental Protection Agency as a zero-emission vehicle.

The FCX has a range of up to 220 miles, seating for four and the performance characteristics of a four-cylinder Honda Civic. City employees will use the vehicles as regular pool cars and for commuting. Plans for refueling systems are being developed.

Almost every major automaker is developing fuel-cell-powered vehicles, and most have announced plans to begin field tests over the next several years.

Torrance-based Toyota Motor Sales America, the U.S. arm of Japanese automotive giant Toyota Motor Corp., earlier this year said it will sell or lease a sizable number of fuel-cell vehicles to private and government entities in North America by year's end, but so far it has not identified its customers. And DaimlerChrysler officials in Germany said Monday that the company will place 60 fuel-cell cars with customers in Europe, Asia and the U.S. for field tests beginning next year.

Fuel-cell-powered vehicles convert hydrogen to electricity in an electro-chemical process. The Honda model has water vapor as its only tailpipe emission. The electricity then powers an electric motor that propels the vehicle.

Unlike battery-powered electric cars, fuel-cell vehicles do not need to be recharged from the electric power grid. They do, however, need a steady supply of fuel-grade hydrogen, and most fuel-cell development specialists say it will be a decade or more before a nationwide retail hydrogen fuel system could be readied.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-na-cars10oct10,0,1386516.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Dscience

Calif. Overstepped Authority on 'Clean' Cars, U.S. Contends

Policy: State's revision of 'zero emissions' rule intruded on federal jurisdiction, officials say.

By ELIZABETH SHOGREN, TIMES STAFF WRITER

Los Angeles Times October 10 2002

WASHINGTON -- For three decades, the federal government has allowed California to plot its own course in its war against air pollution.

But on Wednesday, the Bush administration sided with DaimlerChrysler and the General Motors Corp. in a lawsuit charging that California had overstepped its authority in revising its "zero emissions" vehicle rule last year.

"This is an impermissible intrusion into the federal government's jurisdiction," said Chet Lunner, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Transportation, explaining why the federal government intervened in the case before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

State officials and environmentalists said the action was significant because it marked a departure from the federal government's long-held practice of supporting California's efforts to clean up its smoggy air.

"I am disappointed that the federal government would intervene with our efforts to protect our air quality," Gov. Gray Davis said.

California is the only state in the nation that has the right under federal law to set its own standards, and the state has the nation's toughest pollution regulations.

"The federal government has never stood in California's way before," said David Doniger, policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council's Climate Center.

In June, a federal judge temporarily blocked California from moving ahead with the revisions while the case was being heard. These revisions would give auto companies options in how they meet their quotas for "zero emissions" vehicles, including granting credits for hybrid vehicles, which are powered by a combination of a gasoline engine and electricity.

In its brief, the federal government argued that granting credits for hybrids "preempted" the federal government's sole authority to set fuel-efficiency standards for automobiles, because the criteria for hybrids are defined in reference to fuel-economy standards.

State officials and environmentalists said that the Bush administration action is likely to bolster the companies' legal effort, which has caused havoc with a 12-year-old California program designed to put smog-free electric cars on the freeways.

"It's disappointing," said Sandra Michioku, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office. "We believe the federal government should work with California to meet clean-air requirements imposed on the state."

Environmentalists criticized the government for the latest in a string of Bush administration actions that take the side of industry in disputes over environmental policy. Many top officials in the administration have worked for energy interests in the past; Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, formerly was a top lobbyist for the auto companies.

Doniger said the Bush administration sent a clear message in its brief: "Given the choice between clean air in California and car makers, they choose car makers. Given the choice between states' rights and car makers, they choose car makers."

Spokesmen for the automakers said company officials had not had time to read the brief, which was filed late in the day, and would have no specific comment.

"We appreciate the support of all of the organizations that have filed briefs on our behalf," said Kathy Graham, a spokeswoman for DaimlerChrysler.

Carl T. Hall, San Francisco Chronicle Science Writer Thursday, October 10, 2002

It used to be the car of the future. Then it became a has-been. Now it's a cause.

So it goes in the start-stop-start-stop world of the all-electric, charge- and-go, battery-operated car -- the first Edsel of the new millennium.

Nearly all the big carmakers, including Ford, GM and Honda, are scrapping their "EV" programs, saying there's just no market for cars that come with a leash.

Now, the few people who have actually tried out the cars are staging protests to press their claim that these cars aren't the dogs their manufacturers say they are.

Today, EV fanciers plan what may be San Francisco's first all-electric drive-in rally: protesters expect to climb out of a mini-flotilla of Ford Thinks, GM EV1s and Honda EV-Pluses to declare their love for vehicles nobody supposedly wants.

"There are waiting lists for this car, and the reason is it's really a great car," said Marc Geller, 48, a freelance photographer who gets around in a Think. "It's maddening, it's absolutely maddening. Obviously, people want the damn car, and Ford keeps saying people don't want it. I could sell 5,000 of them myself in this city alone."

A successful introduction of the electric car might have helped pave the way for wider acceptance of all sorts of low- or zero-emission vehicles. But to clean-car advocates, it seems the automakers have other goals in mind.

Aficionados blame the electric car's failure not on any inherent problems with the technology or designs, or on any lack of enthusiasm among potential buyers. They blame it on a lack of enthusiasm among carmakers in love with the big profits they make on those honking big SUVs.

Kenneth Adelman, a computer programmer in Silicon Valley who has a couple of different electric models, calls it a case of "reverse marketing" by the big carmakers.

"They've managed to pull off a huge marketing coup by convincing soccer moms to drive SUVs," Adelman said, and are now out "convincing the public they don't want electric vehicles. But the fact is, for every person who has one, three of four friends want one."

If so, most of those friends probably already have an SUV and plenty of disposable income, and just want an electric vehicle as an environmentally friendly, low-maintenance second car to tool about town.

Electric cars, with their limited range and high price tags, clearly aren't for everybody. Now, it's starting to look as if they aren't for anybody.

While continuing to battle California's clean-car goals, carmakers say the legitimate market demand for low-emission cars will be met with gas-electric hybrids and, eventually, hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles. Only Toyota still offers an all-electric car, the RAV4-EV, to U.S. consumers -- and expects to sell only 200 or 300 this year.

All told, no more than about 5,000 electric cars are on the road in California, according to the California Air Resources Board, despite buyer incentives. One factor: long-awaited improvements in battery technology, needed to make the cars go farther and recharge faster, have failed to materialize.

Typically, electric cars will go no more than 60-120 miles, depending on driving style, speed and terrain, before they need recharging. And although off-peak overnight charging can cut the cost down to a few pennies per mile, it can take four to six hours for a full recharge.

"Certainly battery technology has not advanced the way we had hoped," said Jerry Martin, an air resources board spokesman in Sacramento.

And yet, tech-savvy electric-car drivers insist that charge-and-go vehicles deserve a much better consumer buzz than the carmakers have been able to generate.

Honda's EVplus, canceled two years ago, is "fantastic," said Steve Braunstein, who plays bassoon and contrabassoon with the San Francisco Symphony and, with his wife, has happily driven one of Honda's electrics for five years.

He and his wife also have a gas-burning car, reserving the EVplus for "general around-town activities." For that, he said, "it's perfect."

General Motors, the nation's biggest car manufacturer, may be drawing the most heat for its decision to kill the EV1, considered America's pace-setting battery-powered car.

GM plans to take the cars back once current leases run out, turning most of them over to its engineers tinkering on other advanced-car projects. A few will be sent to universities and museums. One is bound for the Smithsonian.

"The auto industry, and that includes GM, sees no future in battery-powered cars," said Donn Walker, a GM spokesman in Thousand Oaks. "The reasons are not technical. The reasons are economic. It's that simple. There's no market for these vehicles."

Even so, some people like them.

"It's got gobs of torque," said Steve Oddo, a software systems engineer at Dolby Labs in San Francisco, passing everything else on Howard Street during a noontime joyride to Ocean Beach.

A car like this, he said, "gives you hope for the future of the planet, and a hell of a ride."

On the dash, though, a digital readout needled him about the car's limited range -- only 54 miles -- before it would need to be recharged, although the actual range turns out to be much longer because some power is recouped when braking.

It works for Oddo, 39, because he and his wife also own a conventional Subaru station wagon to take for family outings and longer trips. He usually can charge up the EV1 overnight, when rates are low, and he can take his portable charger on the road to plug in wherever he can find a heavy-appliance outlet.

He spends about the same on electricity as he used to spend on gas. He needs no oil or tuneups. The monthly lease, which includes all routine service,

runs a stiff $484 with taxes. Still, the EV1 has proven to be "a perfect fit" in Oddo's household, he said, and "it's a blast to drive."

"You hit the accelerator, and it goes," he said.

It goes back to GM in December. And that comes as no surprise to those who have studied the car and its prospects.

"EV1 drivers are fanatics," said Andy Frank, an engineering professor and clean-car innovator at UC Davis. "The trouble is there aren't more than 10,000 of them out there" in a state that soaks up 1.5 million new vehicles a year.

The EV1's main appeal, he noted, is to well-off, environmentally conscious folks who happen to have a taste for high performance and sports-car styling, and can afford a second car if they need to go more than 60 or 70 miles a day.

"You ask the common person if they would buy such a car, and the fact is they don't want it," Frank said. "There is a market, but the market is very limited."

The EV1 is still listed under "Innovations" on GM's slow-changing Web site, "an exceptional car" offering "a different driving experience."

But GM doesn't buy its own amped-up product propaganda -- certainly not at today's prices.

"Battery-powered cars are a technology whose time has come and gone," Walker said, estimating the car cost his company "north of $1 billion" to develop and would cost each driver more than $120,000 if the leases reflected "the true cost of manufacture."

And that, he said, doesn't even count the substantial R&D expenses it took to create GM's latest trailblazing relic.

Source: Canadian Press [Oct 13, 2002]

ST-JEROME, Que. (CP) -- Hydro-Quebec said Oct. 10, 2002 it's teaming up with a European automaker to design vehicles to house the utility's electric automobile engine.

Jean-Rene Marcoux, head of the Hydro-Quebec subsidiary CapiTech, would not name the European firm but said the partnership would produce a street-ready electric car for sale in Europe by 2005.

The vehicle would be powered by Hydro-Quebec's lithium-metal-polymer (LMP) battery and TM4 wheel-motor system, said Marcoux.

"These batteries have smaller volume, less weight and can be made at lower cost than what is on the market now," Marcoux said at an international forum on advanced transportation in St-Jerome, Que., north of Montreal.

Marcoux said with the battery and wheel-motor system working in tandem, the electric cars could eventually overcome most of the cost and weight concerns that have kept them off the consumer market in North America.

Hydro-Quebec continues to look for a North American partner to design, market and service electric cars using its new technologies. Dumas said Quebec would be an ideal place for the electric car market to take off in North America, because it has plentiful hydroelectric power that's virtually emission-free.

"It's like running a car on water, in terms of emissions," said Dumas.

"This motor lasts forever, and the battery lasts 15 years, maintenance-free," he added.

Dumas said Quebec has more than enough electricity to fuel the transition to electric vehicles. One car would use about as much electricity as a water heater and can be recharged overnight, Marcoux added.