Drive Beyond Oil

Uh Oh

More bad news for Detroit...The first line of the Associated Press story says it all.

'The Detroit automakers' share of the U.S. market dropped below 50 percent for the first time in history.'

Mansfield News Journal

MANSFIELD -- The three young men in the shiny silver SUV tooling around Central Park Wednesday afternoon were on a road trip. But this trio didn't include ballparks or beaches.

They were part of the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund's "Drive Beyond Oil Tour." It's a campaign to rally public support for higher fuel economy standards as the House prepares to vote on an energy bill by the end of the week. The Senate passed an energy bill June 21 that includes a 35 mpg standard by 2020.

Starting July 24 in Maryland, the Toyota Highland Hybrid stopped in Richland County as part of a five-state tour sponsored by the fund, an affiliate of the environmental action organization Natural Resources Defense Council.

Wearing T-shirts declaring "35 MPG OR BUST," Rob Perks, John Grant and Scott Laeser fanned out across the downtown square. They offered statistics about what more miles to the gallon would mean in terms of personal savings and potential jobs. They also had available cell phones so people could call their congressional representatives on the spot and urge them to vote for stronger mileage standards.

Noting that while they did have trouble renting the hybrid SUV in Ohio, Perks stressed that they were not shilling for Toyota.

"We're not talking about flying cars," he said. "We're talking about stuff that's here now."

Laeser said Toyota surpassed the 1 million mark in hybrid sale in June.

Popping the hood, Grant said the Highlander has a gas and electric engine that allows it to use electric power at low speeds for better fuel economy.

Perks said reports from the Union of Concerned Scientists and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute along, with an NRDC report, "Addicted to Oil: Ranking States' Oil Vulnerability to Change," tout the effect higher fuel economy standards on Detroit automakers while saving energy and protecting the environment.

"Our latest research shows Ohio is in trouble," Perks said. "Not enough is being done to address oil dependence in the state and that is going to hurt the neediest. What Ohio needs is leadership on this issue and voting for the new House energy bill is a pretty good start."

He said fuel economy standards being sought are an average, acknowledging not all vehicles will meet them but it would be beneficial on numerous fronts to "do better."

Delphine Smith took Grant up on his cell phone offer while traveling from Detroit with husband Daryl Smith and sons Robert and Terrence. Did she hesitate to call her congressman?

"No, we commute," the former banker turned full-time homemaker said. "Gas prices. We just don't understand it."

Daryl said they spent $56 on gas to drive to Mansfield and would be going on to King's Island. "That's another $50."

Perks coached Chuck George of Mansfield during his call to U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, who represents the 4th Congressional District, which includes Mansfield. George said he doesn't drive but reported the price of gas has prevented people from out of town from coming to see him.

"We are waiting to see what the final version of the bill is," said Ray Yonkura, Jordan's chief of staff.

He said Jordan favors alternative fuels, and feels they should be part of a natural energy strategy. Yonkura said debate on the issue has caused a lot of good ideas to come together but that he's unsure what the final bill will look like because so many changes have taken place.

While we still have wireless...

Before we head south to Columbus, here are a couple quick headlines worth inspecting.

From the Wall Street Journal: Higher Oil Prices Help OPEC Set Revenue Record

Also, oil futures settled at a record high today.

If we adopt a 35 mpg standard, by 2018, we'll save 1.6 million barrels of oil a day, roughly the same amount that we import from Saudi Arabia every single day.

In the news

Here's our story from today's paper in Elyria. We're expecting a follow up tomorrow.

Fuel Economy Campaign to Park at Elyria City Hall
By Cindy Leise

ELYRIA - It's green, and it's rolling into town at noon today.

   The "Drive Beyond Oil" tour will stop in front of City Hall on Ely Square to encourage passers-by to call their congressional representatives to enact tougher fuel economy standards for America's cars and trucks.

   The organizers will walk around Ely Square in their "35 mpg or bust" T-shirts and hand people cell phones so they can call their congressional representative on the spot.

   "They don't even have to dial," said Rob Perks, director of the Natural Resources Defense Fund Action Fund and one of three road trippers.

   Lorain County is considered a key area because U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Copley, might be willing to raise fuel economy standards, Perks said.

   "Sutton hasn't stated her position yet - she's wide open," Perks said.

   U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, is considered a tougher sell, having supported a less aggressive approach to fuel economy standards that is favored by the U.S. auto industry.

   A vote is expected in the next several days on an energy bill that includes the new standards. Last month, the Senate passed a bill requiring the adoption of the 35 mph standard by 2020.

   If the 35 mpg standard goes into effect, the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that Ohioans would save $1.4 billion a year in gas by 2020, or $3,600 a year per family, according to Perks.

   The tour spent time Monday in Youngstown in an attempt to sway U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Youngstown. Previously, the tour, which began last Tuesday, visited parts of Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania.

   Perks said there's one minor flaw in the effort - the group was unable to rent a hybrid manufactured by a U.S. carmaker for the trip.

   Instead, they are tooling around in a Toyota Highlander hybrid, which is getting 33 mph in its four-wheel drive version. Last year, the group averaged 41 mpg in a similar tour in a hybrid Ford Escape, but all attempts to rent another Escape this year were fruitless, he said.

CRP land and biofuels

Interesting article in the Boston Globe yesterday about the pressures put on CRP land and the CRP overall by the rapidly developing biofuels market. There is concern that a lot of acres will leave to program and go into production of soy and corn and that the rules of the CRP will be loosened to allow more regular and aggressive harvesting of biofuels feedstocks and that with these changes will come losses of the very significant environmental benefits that the CRP has provided.

My own thinking on what role CRP lands could and should play in growing feedstocks for biofuels has been developing as I learn more about the program. In NRDC's Growing Energy, when we looked at the amount of land needed to replace gasoline demand with biofuels, we assumed that about 50% of CRP land could be used to grow switchgrass for biofuels while still meeting environmental goals of the CRP. I now doubt that that's the case and I definitely don't think that opening CRP to harvesting of energy crops is the best way to encourage energy crops.

One alternative that I'm intrigued by is the notion of an Energy Reserve Program. An example of this idea can be found in Section 202(G) of the Healthy Farms, Food, and Fuel Act introduced in the House recently. I have a lot still to learn about the idea, but basically it creates an alternative between CRP and regular crop land. It requires better cropping practices and production of crops for bioproducts and provides a time limited incentive. Basically it would allow CRP to stay strictly a conservation program and still encourage energy crops without making them just another commodity crop.

FarmPolicy.com - a great source of info

Just want to give a plug for one of my favorite sources of information on agricultural policy: FarmPolicy.com. The author, Keith Good, provides a daily digest of news and opinions for the extremely reasonable price of $35 per year. Today's newsletter includes a good wrap up of recent articles on the ethanol market. It also mentions a recent study written by Amani Elobeid and Simla Tokgoz of the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development at Iowa State University on what would happen if we removed the US ethanol incentive and the import tariff. As Keith points out, the Farm Gate blog provides a helpful summary of the study. The main lesson I draw from reading the summary is that changes in the incentive and tariff would have wide spread and in some cases counter intuitive effects. This reinforces my personal opinion that while these policies need to be revamped, they should be done in the context of a comprehensive reform not piecemeal.

Big dollars for renewable energy

The Clinton Global Initiative is wrapping up here in NYC. This week’s meetings saw the announcement of $4 billion in investments in biofuels and other energy technologies to cut global warming pollution. Yesterday, Sir Richard Branson said that he would invest $3 billion. (“Branson Pledges Billions to Fight Global Warming,” by Andrew C. Revkin, NY Times, 9/21/06), and today President Clinton announced a $1 billion renewable energy investment fund (“Clinton debuts $1B renewable-energy fund,” By Nahal Toosi, Associated Press, 9/22/06). You know the old saying: a billion here and a billion there and soon you start talking about real money. Nothing can substitute for good government policies, but these are big sums and if they’re used well, they will make a difference.

Crossing Into Central Time

Rolling on I-74 towards Peoria, but we haven't forgotten you Akron, with your silo hotel, "hobo bread" and modern U of Akron campus.

And with articles like this one from the Akron Beacon Journal, we hope you won't forget us, too.

We've Been Vindicated!

  Eben chats with reporter 

Check out the "Drive Beyond Oil" article that appeared today in Youngstown, Ohio's local paper, The Vindicator:

That's me and the reporter. Note that whatever I'm saying is not worth writing down. That was, of course, an anomaly.

From Slo-mo to Silo

Here’s the problem with hitting an hour of traffic -- it causes you to make up time by (carefully) driving in the passing lane through the entirety of Pennsylvania. But it also builds up dramatic tension for an explosion of mass media communication with the fine people of Youngstown, Ohio. In a hurried media blitzkrieg not seen since TomKat’s baby, the Beyond Oil Tour crew took Youngstown by storm tonight. We met with the Youngstown Vindicator, chatting about the feasibility of ethanol and how cellulosic ethanol (the kind made from the whole plant, leaving the edible nuggets like corn kernels for our tables, not gas tanks) won’t bite into our food supply. Then we headed over to the local FOX, WKBN, and talked up the Escape’s gas mileage from our daylong trip (about 31 on mostly highway driving). Afterwards, an ABC WYTV reporter took the Escape for a quick jaunt around the station’s HQ, noting it had “impressive torque.” Indeed, hybrids have higher torque from battery power, which supplies instantaneous and, ummm, torque-ier acceleration you can really feel. But you know what technology doesn’t work so well? Hotel room cards at a hotel made from former silos. Just ask Lisa.