Energy & Environment: Alternative fuels not mature; improve gasoline quality and reduce emissions

Last month, the Obama administration announced a first-of-its-kind national program for regulating fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. This important move offers clarity to states and the federal government on their roles in regulating vehicle emissions standards while at the same time offering the auto industry the certainty and consistency it needs for future product planning. As a strong proponent of American manufacturing and an unabashed supporter of my constituents, most of whom are employed by companies that build the vehicles American drive, I applaud the president’s announcement and was proud to be at the White House for this important announcement.

By 2015, the average fuel economy of the vehicles sold in America will be approximately 35.5 miles per gallon, or 250 grams of carbon dioxide per mile. There is no silver bullet or single technology that will solve the challenges of enhancing energy security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. For automakers and consumers, meeting these new standards will mean changes not only in the vehicles they buy but also in the fuels they use.

While next-generation vehicle technologies like plug-in hybrids or hydrogen fuel cells offer great promise, it is highly unlikely that the infrastructure and demand will exist for them to displace the internal combustion engine as the technology of choice in the next few years. Consider this: It took almost 11 years before a million hybrid electric vehicles were sold worldwide; if that many were sold in 2009 it would still account for fewer than 10 percent of total U.S. vehicle sales. While we are excited about the potential of these technologies, until questions about cost and consumer acceptance are answered we need to be very careful when speculating on their popularity.

So how can we integrate today’s fuels and vehicle technology to produce meaningful, near-term benefits for all Americans?

Even for today’s internal combustion engines, improving fuel quality can have dramatic effects on our ability to bring cars to market that emit lower levels of carbon dioxide per mile, and lower levels of pollutants related to local air quality. The current sulfur levels allowable in both gasoline and diesel fuel impede the introduction of cleaner burning engines, and technologies that could contribute to the industry’s ability to meet the more aggressive CAFE standards.

Another important fuel quality issue is the permissible level of known carcinogens such as benzene in motor vehicle fuel. These so-called “aromatics,” also known as air toxics after they leave the tailpipe, are also major precursors to particulate matter (PM) in tailpipe emissions. We know that both air toxics and PM have significant consequences to human health, and improving fuel quality by limiting their presence in motor vehicle fuel is the most cost-effective way of reducing human exposure.

The expanded use of advanced biofuels will also play a key role going forward, but again there are challenges to overcome. In 2007, Congress put us on a path toward approximately 20 percent of our transportation fuel coming from renewable sources, but the vast majority of vehicles, fueling stations and pipelines in the U.S. were not designed to handle high-level blends of ethanol. Thus, we face a significant cost barrier to their increased use.

There is a lot of excitement about the emerging next generation of advanced biofuels, some of which will be compatible with existing vehicles and fueling infrastructure. This biogasoline matches the properties in petroleum and as such can be used in any gas engine with no changes. Moreover, the infrastructure issues we face with ethanol fuel don’t exist with biogasoline.

In the meantime, we have to ensure that the biofuels we have today can be integrated into our vehicle fleet. It is critical that EPA’s work on this issue continues to be guided solely by sound, unbiased and comprehensive science and holds true to the fundamental purposes of protecting the environment and consumers.


Dingell is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.