EPA's perspective on Obama Administration Climate Change Policy highlights DuPont automotive event
Christopher Grundler, Deputy Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Transportation and Air Quality |
"President Obama has made transformation to a low carbon economy a core part of his domestic agenda and a key to our economic recovery,” said Christopher Grundler, Deputy Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Transportation and Air Quality, speaking at a recent DuPont/DPE automotive industry seminar. “We at EPA are seized by the importance and urgency of the task before us to address the threat of climate change."
Grundler was the keynote speaker at the 10th annual DuPont and DPE Automotive Power Lunch and Seminar in Detroit, MI, USA, on 23 April 2009, attended by over 100 senior auto industry fuel and powertrain systems designers and engineers.
In his talk entitled: The Changing U.S. Landscape for Climate Change Policy, Grundler reviewed recent policy changes from the new Obama administration and updated industry leaders on EPA regulatory activities.The EPA's mission is to reconcile transportation and the environment by advancing clean fuels and technology and by promoting sustainable transportation policies. It establishes national emission standards for all vehicles and engines sold in the United States and works with state and local governments on strategies to reduce transportation emissions.
He described the pace of change being implemented by President Obama’s automotive task force as “really quite breathtaking”, and admitted he’d never seen anything like it in his experience of presidential transitions since 1980.
He pointed back to 2007 and the key findings of the Fourth Assessment Report of the U.N’s “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change”, stating that "most of the observed increase in temperatures is very likely due to the increase in anthropogenic GHG concentrations".
Setting the scenario for a technology-driven future of low-GHG emission vehicles, Grundler quoted the then President-elect Barak Obama’s words in the run up to the Presidential Election. "When I am president…any company that's willing to invest in clean energy will have an ally in Washington. And any nation that's willing to join the cause of combating climate change will have an ally in the United States of America".
He outlined government proposals to develop a program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 14% below 2005 levels by 2020, and approximately 83% below 2005 levels by 2050 — but to do that would mean new technology vehicles that will look very different from today, and have some kind of electric drive component, he predicted.
The EPA now had an obligation to begin regulating GHG, beginning with automobiles, Grundler said, pointing to figures showing that 54% of all US transportation GHG emissions emanate from cars and light trucks.
Currently, the US automotive industry is regulated by three different agencies — CARB, EPA and the Department of Transportation. But he said that the intention of President Obama's Automotive Task Force was to establish a national policy to allow manufacturers to come up with single compliance and technology strategies to meet those requirements.
The Energy Independence and Security Act has tasked the EPA to come up with a renewable fuel standard to increase the amount of renewable fuels used in the transportation fuels market from today’s standard volume of roughly 9 billion gallons to 36 billion gallons by 2020, using mostly advanced non-food feedstock biofuels.
Karla Butler, DuPont Automotive Marketing Director - North America |
"The vision of U.S. regulatory agencies will shape automotive R and D, engineering and materials development," said Karla Butler, DuPont Automotive Marketing Director in North America. "Working collaboratively throughout the value chain, we can accelerate new technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve fuel economy and meet the challenge of using alternative energy sources."Speaking for both DuPont and DuPont Performance Elastomers, she said sustainability underlined both company’s innovative, market-driven science orientation in developing products and technologies that complemented the projects members of the audience were working on – materials compatible with alternative fuels, ideas to reduce weight, to integrate multiple functions, to power the vehicle and deliver innovation at lower cost.
Among many automotive sector initiatives at DuPont/DPE, Karla Butler highlighted collaboration in fuel systems to develop cleaner fuels, pointing to new test data showing best-in-class performance for Viton® fluoroelastomers in compatibility with biodiesel and ethanol, and long term-term retention of critical properties in current and emerging biofuels.
Dawn Rittenhouse, Director, Sustainable Development - DuPont |
Dawn Rittenhouse, Director, Sustainable Development at DuPont, outlined the company's mission for sustainable growth as "the creation of shareholder and societal value while we reduce the environmental footprint along the value chains in which we operate".During the period 1990 to 2009, she said DuPont had reduced its own GHG emissions by 72% while increasing production by 40%. Air carcinogens had dropped by 92%, and air toxins by 75% in DuPont’s journey towards its 2015 sustainability goals.
The company offered many sustainable solutions to serve the marketplace, she added, citing transportation sector programs bringing environmentally smarter air conditioning systems and thermal management, better energy storage in hybrid vehicles, and applications for lighter, more fuel efficient cars.
Solutions to serve the marketplace |
Full transcripts from the event, including presentations from all speakers, DuPont test data on fuel compatibility and links to critical resources, are available online at www.seedthefuture.dupont.com
