Energy US, Energy China | Green Energy News

November 23, 2003 – Vol.8 No.35

ENERGY U.S., ENERGY CHINA.

At about the same time the U.S. Congress put its energy bill on the shelf - to be revived next year with another heated round of lobbying and debates - China told auto manufacturing concerns that vehicles built or sold there must meet new fuel efficiency standards. Do it or don’t sell here. Rulemakers in China did leave a small opening for lobbying and debate, but it’s really a done deal, according to the New York Times.

The U.S. energy bill had something for everybody in the energy arena. Energy efficiency, renewables, hydrogen and nuclear received attention, but the weight was on the fossil fuel side of the fulcrum.

The bill also had the usual pork that has come to be expected from Capitol Hill players looking for campaign money or votes back home.

But the bill was put aside for a few months over product liability lawsuits and clean-up costs related to gasoline additive MBTE. The bill would have let MBTE manufacturers off the hook, even for dirty deeds done in the past. MBTE has been found to contaminate water supplies in at least 28 states. The clean-up tab is estimated as high as $29 billion.

The China fuel efficiency ruling is an attempt by the country to keep it from getting as deep in the same oil dependency rut as the U.S. The new fuel-economy rules are a first for China. The rules will take effect in July 2005 and are more stringent than the U.S. rules, but only by a couple of miles per gallon. (As expected, the Chinese government has not made the rules publicly available.)

China, apparently, has also considered raising taxes on vehicle fuel to reduce consumption, but fears higher taxes will impact too many sectors of society. The same argument against higher fuel taxes is raised in the U.S. with the added caveat that higher taxes would hurt the auto companies by forcing consumers into less profitable, but more fuel efficient, cars and trucks.