The Road to Cleaner & Cheaper

THE ROAD TO

CLEANER & CHEAPER

A Handbook of Transportation and Related Energy Choices2009 and Beyond

Prepared for Consumer Watchdog by Judy Dugan

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................

GRADING THE OPTIONS

...............................................................

ENERGY MARKET OVERSIGHT AND REGULATION

..................................

RENEWABLE FUELS AND CLEAN VEHICLES

..........................................

WHO PAYS, WHO BENEFITS

..............................................................INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................BIG-PICTURE POLICY ESSENTIALS .................................................

REGULATE ENERGY TRADING MARKETS

.............................................

REGULATE U.S. REFINERIES AND FUEL SUPPLIES

..................................ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION FUELS AND VEHICLES ............

HYBRID/PLUG-IN HYBRID/ALL-ELECTRIC VEHICLES

...............................

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

..................................................

ETHANOL

....................................................................................

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

.................................................

BIODIESEL

...................................................................................

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

.................................................

NATURAL GAS

.............................................................................

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

..................................................

HYDROGEN

..................................................................................

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

..................................................

COAL-TO-LIQUID FUELS

.................................................................

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

.................................................PAY FOR CHANGE FAIRLY ..............................................................END NOTES ....................................................................................

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Prepared for Consumer Watchdog by Judy Duganwww.ConsumerWatchdog.org

1. GRADING THE OPTIONS:

In order to spend taxpayer money wisely and make smartchoices about our transportation policy, policymakers mustdistinguish between policies, programs and technologiesthat have a broad public benet and those or which thebenets are narrowly accrued by special interests. Consum-er Watchdog has graded many o the technologies and uelsbeing debated in the planning or America’s energy uture.The details discussed in the handbook are important and o-er some caveats to these grades, but in summary:

Grade A

– Hybrid, Plug-In Hybrid and All-Electric vehicles

Grade B

– Ethanol and Biodiesel ueled vehicles

Grade C

– Natural Gas ueled vehicles (higher grade or usein short-haul bus and truck feets)

Grade D

– Hydrogen ueled vehicles

Grade F

– Coal-based transportation uels

2. ENERGY MARKET OVERSIGHT AND REGULATION:

The neglect and demolition o reasonable government over-sight o the oil industry has cost motorists billions o dollarsand wreaked havoc on the economy and the environment.Energy markets and renery operations in particular suerrom lack o modern regulation.There are two crucial sources o unreasonably high pumpprices, both tied to the deregulatory ocus o national ener-gy policy over the past several decades: rapacious specula-tion o commodity traders both in and outside o oil compa-nies and market manipulations by oil reners.Energy commodity markets require a major regulatoryoverhaul to distinguish between pure nancial speculationand transactions involving actual buyers and sellers. Alltrading should be ar more transparent; nancial specula-tors, including nancial trading departments inside major oilcompanies, should also play by tougher rules. These includeputting up more o the value o a trade in each transaction,limits on highly complex trading schemes that can be mis-used and overall limits on daily trades. In order to protectagainst a speculation-driven and distorted global commoditymarket or renewable uels, regulation o biouels must beestablished in concert with the expansion o the biouelsmarket.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This handbook oers solutionsor the most visible and perva-sive sector o the current oil/en-vironmental crisis: transportationby automobile. Americans travelmore than 3.5 trillion vehicle milesper year

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(not even including occa-sional long-distance drives). Theyace oten-staggering gasolinecosts and emit millions o tons opollutants. Our assessments andrecommendations aim at reduc-ing the use o oil as a personaltransportation uel while oer-ing consumers alternatives thatare ultimately both cleaner andcheaper.Consumer Watchdog agrees withproponents o energy efciencyand conservation that both areast, eective ways to reduce alltypes o ossil uel dependence.These solutions are intertwinedwith vehicle use, and addressedhere only in that context, or ex-ample in higher CAFÉ standards.Similarly, attention to mass tran-sit is essential. But mass transitwill not address the immediateproblems o millions o Americanswho lack access to robust urbantransit systems—meaning mostAmericans.In the handbook, we highlightpolicies aimed at more eectivelymonitoring and regulating the oilindustry and ensuring that theclean uels and technologies oour automobile uture don’t be-come the next energy oligopoly.We also grade the various alterna-tive uels in order to help policy-makers and the public assess thechoices or the uture o automo-bile transportation.

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Prepared for Consumer Watchdog by Judy Duganwww.ConsumerWatchdog.org