THE LAZY ENVIRONMENTALIST, hosted by Josh Dorfman, screens Tuesdays at 9PM on Sundance Channel.

From a Lazy Environmentalist perspective, I have to admit that I’m not altogether unhappy to see gas prices rising again. For better or worse, the most effective way I’ve encountered to convince people to make environmentally sound choices is to appeal directly to their wallets. So when gas prices rise, fuel-efficient alternatives start to look much more appealing. In “Lazy Driver” I’m working with a really busy courier service – delivering on the order of several hundred packages around Los Angeles per day – to figure out how to boost the fuel economy of their cars (to reduce greenhouse gas emissions), reduce fuel costs and still enable deliveries to be made in time.

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WASHINGTON, DC, August 22, 2008 (ENS) – Hypermiling, a way of driving to maximize fuel economy, has gone mainstream and bipartisan.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers started a new website today, www.ecodrivingusa.com [www.ecodrivingusa.com], to promote driving and vehicle maintenance habits that can reduce fuel consumption. Its first two spokesmen for the effort are Arnold Schwarzenegger, Republican governor of California, and Bill Ritter, Democratic governor of Colorado.

Underscoring their united efforts, the site proclaims: “Red State. Blue State. Through EcoDriving, we can all be green states.”

The interactive site lists a variety of ways to wring the most miles out of every gallon of gasoline, from avoiding idling the car for more than 30 seconds to using the “recycle inside air” feature to reduce air-conditioning demands.

In a video message posted on the site’s home page Schwarzenegger underscores the immediate benefits of learning how to “ecodrive.”

“We hear a lot of ideas from politicians about lowering the gas prices and fighting global warming, whether it is biofuels, offshore drilling or nuclear power,” he says. “But none of those will affect gas prices right now. Only you can do that. … Each of us has the power to make a difference right now.”

How? The site lists 26 driving and vehicle-maintenance tips that it says can collectively boost fuel economy by 15 percent. For example:

* Drive with a feather foot rather than a lead foot, avoiding rapid acceleration and hard stops.

* On warm days, roll down the windows to cool off if driving slower than 40 mph. At speeds above 40 mph, using air conditioning is more efficient.

* Use cruise control selectively. The feature saves energy on flat terrains, but on hilly routes, cruise control may cause the engine to speed up unnecessarily while climbing hills and slow down while descending.

* Check tire pressure regularly, use “energy conserving” motor oil if available and appropriate for your engine, replace clogged air filters and keep vehicle properly tuned.

Schwarzenegger says that if every driver followed “ecodriving” practices, the reductions in climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions “would be an equivalent to heating and powering nearly eight cities the size of Los Angeles.”

“Ecodriving” is also known as hypermiling, a term coined by Wayne Gerdes, owner and administrator of www.cleanmpg.com. That website is billed as an online community of people guided by the motto, “Learn to raise fuel economy and lower emissions in whatever you drive.”

Dave McCurdy, president and CEO of the trade group Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said much the same thing in a statement introducing his organization’s campaign.

“EcoDriving produces the highest mileage from every single vehicle, regardless of vehicle size and age, so it offers an unmatched reach in addressing energy and climate issues by potentially affecting the nation’s entire fleet of 245 million automobiles,” McCurdy said.

“Drivers don’t have to wait to buy a new, fuel-efficient vehicle to start reducing fuel costs and CO2,” he said – but in deference to his 10 member companies, which include Chrysler, Ford, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Volkswagen, he added, “I do encourage everyone to buy one of our new fuel-efficient vehicles immediately.”

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FRESNO, California, December 12, 2007 (ENS) – A federal district judge today upheld a 2002 California law that regulates the emission of greenhouse gases from the tailpipes of cars and trucks. The California emissions standard requires a 30 percent reduction in tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions by 2016. The reduction would be phased in gradually starting with model year 2009.

Sitting in Fresno, Judge Anthony Ishii ruled against an automobile industry challenge to the law brought by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which includes most of the major car companies.

Judge Ishii rejected the automakers’ claim that U.S. foreign policy and federal fuel economy laws preempt state authority to curb emissions.

He also ruled that if California’s motor vehicle regulations are approved by by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, enforcement of the regulations will be consistent with federal law.

“This is the fourth major legal victory for California and a stinging rejection of the automobile industry’s legal challenge to greenhouse gas emissions standards,” said California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr.

“This court ruling leaves the Bush administration as the last remaining roadblock to California’s regulation of tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions,” Brown said.

On December 21, 2005 California submitted to the EPA a waiver request for the state’s Clean Car program which has been pending ever since.
Car exhaust contributes to global warming, smog and acid rain.

The EPA’s waiver of federal preemption under the Clean Air Act is the last step before the California regulation can be adopted not only in California but in 16 other states that have passed similar legislation.

Judge Ishii wrote, “Given the level of impairment of human health and welfare that current climate science indicates may occur if human-generated greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated, it would be the very definition of folly if EPA were precluded from action.”

The EPA has granted such waiver requests some 53 times over the last 40 years and has never refused such a request.

Alliance chief executive Dave McCurdy said the organization is considering an appeal of Judge Ishii’s ruling.

“We can all agree that higher fuel economy is important, but the issue here was about federal fuel economy law,” said McCurdy today. “Under federal law, only the federal government can set fuel economy standards for all 50 states. We need a consistent national policy for fuel economy, and this nationwide policy cannot be written by a single state or group of states – only by the federal government.”

“In fact, the federal government has taken action, raising fuel economy standards for seven straight years,” he said. “Just in the last week, Congressional leaders have agreed on a new national fuel economy standard that will aggressively raise fuel economy standards for the next 12 years.

McCurdy said that automakers are acting on their own to curb emissions. “Automakers are now selling a range of fuel-efficient technologies, such as hybrids, diesel and cylinder deactivation that save gas and reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and autos with these technologies are now on sale on dealers’ lots,” he said.

Environmental groups were delighted with the ruling. “This is a huge win for clean air and a cooler planet. Judge Ishii’s opinion leaves no doubt that the EPA must act now to pave the way for the innovative clean car programs being advanced by California and 16 other states across the nation,” said Vickie Patton, senior attorney with Environmental Defense, a defendant-intervener in the case.

The public too is behind the California Clean Car law. About 98,000 comments were submitted in response to EPA’s request for comment on the waiver, and most were supportive of the waiver. Only one individual automobile manufacturer and some automobile trade associations submitted negative comments.

The Bush administration has said that it will issue a decision by the end of this month.

“EPA Administrator Steve Johnson should immediately grant California’s request to move ahead with this program,” said Environmental Defense President Fred Krupp. “All similar California air pollution requests have been approved. Not one has been turned down in EPA history.”

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