Small Change | Green Energy News

December 8, 2002 – Vol.7 No.37

SMALL CHANGE.

The Bush Administration has approved a 1.5 mile per gallon increase in the fuel economy standard for light trucks, which includes pick-up trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles (SUV). The new standard will be applicable for models built for vehicle year 2005 and phased-in through 2007. The current standard for this class of vehicles is 20.5 miles per gallon.

Certainly this must be a typographical error. Didn’t the Administration really mean to push the decimal place to right a notch and increase the standard by 15 miles per gallon? Regretfully, it didn’t. The increase to 22 miles per gallon is correct.

Of course it’s unlikely that this Administration would approve of a dramatic increase that would require a crash program to achieve. But the Administration must obviously be aware of world news that leads to the need and eventual cutback in the burning of crude oil.

--- New Zealand, with 0.2 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions has ratified Kyoto, and the Canadian Parliament has voted to back ratification of the treaty. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien proclaimed once again that he would formally ratify the accord by the end of the year. Canada is responsible for 3.0 percent of global emissions. Now only Russia must sign on, and has pledged to do so.

--- South Korea, according to Reuters, which has to import all of its oil, plans to reduce its share of oil in its energy mix from 50.6 percent to 45 percent by 2011. The country plans to increase the share of renewables from 1.2 percent to 5 percent to make up most of the gap.

--- OPEC members have agreed to a plan which will lead to a net reduction of between 1.2 and 1.7 million barrels per day of actual oil output. The move was to prevent a fall in oil prices anticipated in the coming months. If members comply, and oil prices sneak up a fraction, higher prices at the pump will further pinch consumers and struggling oil dependent industries such as airlines. OPEC plans further production cuts next spring if necessary to shore up prices.

--- And according to a BBC news report, glaciers in the Bolivian Andes show a loss of mass in the 1990’s ten times greater than in previous decades.

Researchers for the French Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD) working in the South American nation claim that low-latitude, high altitude glaciers - tropical glaciers - are the most sensitive to climate change because their peak season of accumulation is summer when solar radiation levels are at their peak. The scientists claim more frequent El Nino events are causing lower precipitation and higher temperatures.

Some of the smaller glaciers may be gone in as little as ten years, according to the scientists interviewed.

The head of the Bolivian climate change office hopes the world’s most powerful nations will not leave their response to climate change to the next generation of politicians. Many in the U.S. hope that the U.S. response to climate change is not left to the next occupant of the White House. Visit the IRD at http://www.ird.fr/ .