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Articles Archive Index
Issue 12
Alternately Fueled Vehicles
by Marian Wineman
I recycle, compost, save water, carry cloth shopping totes and buy organic — each of these small steps adds up. But lately I've been obsessing about how much energy our lifestyle and all of our stuff — cars, homes, food, toys, furniture and clothes — requires. Replacing cars and home energy with renewable, clean sources will reduce this energy footprint. Two of our recent articles explored hybrid and biodiesel-fueled vehicles (issues #10 and #8); this one provides compelling reasons and ways to choose an alternatively fueled vehicle (AFV).
Cars and light trucks use 40 percent of the total oil consumed in the U.S. They also emit 20 percent of the nation's carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution. It is feasible that we can reduce our total consumption of gasoline, electricity and heating fuels at least 40 percent by using existing energy-efficient technology in cars, buildings, appliances and other energy-using products. U.S. transportation generates more CO2 emissions than any other nation's entire economy, except China. These statistics include emissions from transportation, home and industries combined.
Don't drive: Of course, the cheapest and best option for the planet is not to drive at all or as little as possible. Walking, bicycling, using mass transit, car-sharing, living near work, carpooling, telecommuting and consolidating trips are the best solutions. But for any single-occupancy commuting, errands or recreation, a high-fuel-efficiency vehicle is the only sustainable option.
My old motto was: Buy a used car and use it as long as you can tolerate (reuse prior to recycling). However, because arctic meltdown is occurring even more rapidly than first predicted, burning fossil fuels is so detrimental that switching to an environmentally friendly AFV immediately is the best solution. By this summer, our family will have replaced one car with an AFV — a biodiesel. When we save enough money, we'll replace our second car with a Prius hybrid.
30 Years in Reverse
Automakers and politicians drag their feet: It's been a long haul getting manufacturers to begin making more fuel-efficient vehicles. The impetus to double the fuel economy of new vehicles was the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo. In 1975, Congress established the first Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. These standards have saved approximately 3 million barrels of oil per day in the U.S., making CAFE the most successful energy-saving measure ever adopted. Because of these standards, between 1975 and the late 1980s, better engines, transmissions, materials and aerodynamics accounted for 86 percent of the fuel economy improvements.
Despite the success of the initial CAFE standards and the availability of even more fuel-efficient technologies, these standards have not been raised. Automakers have promoted and saturated the market with gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks — and the public has bought into their marketing ploys. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, "More than 50 percent of new U.S. vehicle purchases are light trucks: SUVs, minivans, and pickups." The auto industry uses this as an excuse to continue to build inefficient vehicles. Eron Shosteck of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers says, "Gas is cheaper than bottled water. There is no incentive for people to use less." Consequently, the U.S. fleet's fuel efficiency has dropped from a high nearly 20 years ago of 26.2 mpg to 25.2 mpg in 2005. It's a travesty, but true, according to the Sierra Club website: "Nearly a hundred years ago the Ford Model T got 25 miles per gallon. Today, a Ford Explorer gets a mere 16 miles per gallon."
In September 2003, the auto industry successfully weakened the states' right to protect people from tailpipe emissions for the first time in the 35-year history of the Clean Air Act. Last year, manufacturers, including Toyota, filed suit against a California program to cut global warming emissions from cars and SUVs. The auto industry claims the California rules would add $3,000 to the cost of a new car, and they maintain people won't be able to afford that. Since consumers often pay thousands of dollars for extras like stereos, leather and sunroofs, they might pay more for fuel efficiency if the manufacturers gave them the option.
Staggering statistics can motivate: Did you know that driving a 13-mpg SUV instead of even an average car that gets 25.2 mpg, wastes more energy than if you:
- left your refrigerator door open for 6 years or
- left your bathroom light burning for 30 years or
- left your color television turned on for 28 years?
Fortunately, the tide is turning: Despite these challenges, 11 states in the northeast, west coast and the District of Columbia have adopted California's tougher emission standards. According to US PIRG, these requirements mean new cars sold in these states have to emit 30 percent less carbon dioxide, 20 percent fewer toxic pollutants and up to 20 percent fewer smog-causing pollutants than the federal standards allow. To provide plenty of time for automakers to comply, the new standards phase in gradually between 2009 and 2016.
Sales of hybrids, while still a small fraction of the total market, nearly doubled between January 2005 and January 2006. Toyota Prius sales have increased 130 percent so far this year, while light-duty truck and SUV sales are plummeting. SUV sales are unlikely to recover: General Motors analyst Paul Ballew says that he does not believe sales of large SUVs will return to their previous highs, citing gas prices as a prime reason. By 2006, sales of hybrid vehicles are expected to make up approximately 10 percent of the 2 million midsize cars sold each year in the U.S. Toyota recently set a goal of selling more than 1 million hybrids a year globally and about 600,000 in the U.S. early in the next decade.
Buying Your New AFV
The benefits of fuel-efficient vehicles: My sister-in-law bought a Toyota Prius in February of 2004. She and her husband had penciled out the savings they would get from much lower gas costs and tax deductions, but that wasn't their main reason. They love the car and feel good about contributing to clean air; saving a bundle at the pumps is an added bonus.
The benefits of green-fueled vehicles are clearly numerous: cleaner air resulting in better health and lower health care costs; reduced fuel consumption and the multi-billion-dollar cost savings of increased national security and world stability; decreased emissions and global climate change, which reduces the extensive costs of worsening natural disasters.
Calculate your savings:
Compare alternatively fueled vehicles: When it comes to alternative fuels, there are many options to sort through: gasoline-electric hybrids, biodiesel, hydrogen and more. To compare the pros and cons of these fuel sources see http://nesea.gaiahost.coop/greencarclub/choose.html. But the most environmentally friendly choice now available for both reduced fuel consumption and emissions boils down to buying a full gasoline-electric hybrid or a diesel that uses 100 percent biodiesel fuel. Hydrogen-fuel-cell cars have been touted as the "vehicles of the future," but their overall efficiency may be limited, and they may not be available for 10 to 40 years.
Several websites can help you explore the AFV world. greenercars.com provides a Green Score and Class Ranking for each vehicle. The best place to start your search is their section called Greenest Vehicles of 2006; additional features include Highlights of the Model Year.
Insist on raised CAFE standards: The current CAFE standards are 27.5 mpg for passenger cars and 20.7 for light trucks. If the CAFE standards were raised to 40 mpg for passenger cars, the savings would be 3 million barrels of oil each day. This equates to more oil, in total, than the U.S. currently imports from the Persian Gulf and could ever extract from both the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the outer continental shelf. Forty mpg CAFE standards would cut global warming pollution by 600 million tons a year and consumers would save more than $45 billion each year at the gas pump. This is another important way you can help, because legislators and auto companies will respond, albeit slowly, if consumers choose clean vehicles over dirty ones and lobby for higher CAFE standards and supporting the production of cleaner models.
Since our family can't seem to forgo the convenience of two cars (fortunately, we telecommute), we'll be kicking the dirty oil habit with a used 50-mpg VW Passat diesel sedan or wagon that we will run on 100 percent biodiesel. We'll follow that with the purchase of a 66-mpg Prius hybrid. That will take us two giant steps closer to reducing our energy footprint.
Marian Wineman is an environmental consultant who lives in Seattle with her husband and six-year-old daughter. All three of them would rather walk than get in the car.
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