2016 Vehicle Standards: Better Mileage, Cleaner Air

The national fuel-efficiency and emission-control standard announced in mid-May will significantly raise the requirements for vehicle manufacturers, foreign and domestic. But the standard will also enable automakers and regulators to pursue the goals more efficiently.

Pleasing environmental groups and - publicly, at least - manufacturers, President Obama described new, comprehensive rules that:

Raise the required, overall average for fuel efficiency to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016 - four years earlier than current federal law requires. New passenger cars would have to average 39 mpg; light trucks, 30 mpg. (The current average for cars is 27.5 mpg; for trucks, 23 mpg.)

Impose, for the first time nationwide limits on vehicle-exhaust emissions.

Carbon dioxide and other vehicle emissions that contribute to climate change would be reduced by almost one-third by 2016. The volumes are hard to comprehend, but the Obama administration said the restrictions would reduce greenhouse emissions by 900 million metric tons - the equivalent of taking 177 million cars off the road during the 6-1/2-year duration of the new policies.

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Roadmap for Cleaner Fuels and Cleaner Vehicles

I recently came across an interesting document titled “A Road Map for Cleaner Fuels and Vehicles in Asia”. This document was prepared as part of an air quality programme supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The roadmap was meant to provide decision makers in Asia with up-to-date information on how to clean up fuels and encourage clean vehicles. The roadmap discusses the interaction between fuels and vehicle technologies and the approaches that Asian countries can take to produce cleaner fuels and vehicles.

I have extracted the key conclusions drawn from that document. I hope you find them interesting.

(i) Clean fuels are essential. Pollution control experts worldwide have come to realize over the past 30 years that cleaner fuels are a critical component of an effective clean air strategy. In recent years, this understanding of the critical role of fuels deepened and spread to most regions of the world. Fuel quality is now seen as not only essential for directly eliminating or reducing pollutants such as lead, but also as a precondition for introducing many important pollution control technologies (e.g., the lowering of sulfur content to enable use of diesel particulate filters). Further, one critical advantage of cleaner fuels has emerged — its rapid impact on both new and existing vehicles. For example, tighter new vehicle standards can take 10 or more years to be fully effective, but the removal of lead in gasoline in Asia has reduced lead emissions from all vehicles immediately.


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Clean City With Green Cars

If we know that driving a car leads to more pollution than any other activity, it is also our responsibility to fix it. Of course, emissions from one car may be low. But add a hundred, a thousand, or a million cars and you suddenly have a serious pollution problem on hand.

This is where the Sharjah Public Transport Corporation’s decision to introduce gas-powered taxi and bus fleet gains significance. In addition to providing a green hue to the city by planting trees, Sharjah, the cultural hub of the Arab world has stepped up its efforts in making the emirate clean and green. Its decision to convert all 5,065 taxis to run on natural gas by the yearend is a major leap towards making the emirate eco-friendly. Since the past year, Dubai has been replacing its existing fleet of taxis with eco-friendly cars that run on hybrid engines. This indicates the RTA’s commitment towards the environment. Thus, Dubai has led the way in the promotion of sustainable public transport system, and the emirate can expect real time fuel efficiency with the use of hybrid cars.

When the efforts contribute to building a healthy nation in a healthier environment, the opportunity has to be captured. The taxis and buses to be introduced by Sharjah will prove to be further incentives to individuals to opt for such vehicles. Harmful chemicals produced during the combustion process in the engines and released as exhaust leads to air pollution. The harmful affects of air pollution need no elucidation. With ozone continuing to be a persistent urban air pollution problem, all vehicle emission control programmes have to emphasise on nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbon reductions.

Also, limiting vehicle-generated carbon dioxide will be critical to a successful pollution control exercise.

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