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Energy
Security and Global Warming: What GM is doing
Wednesday,
March 21, 2007
Is
GM about more than just the Hummer?
When it comes the environment and global warming, GM is
the favored whipping boy in the automotive sector, but is
such a view of GM accurate? Just because GM isn't the
leading developer of hybrid
cars, does that mean they are not an environmental
leader? According to GM's VP of Environment and Energy,
Beth Lowery, that view is not correct and she is letting
people know about it on the Fast
Lane Blog.
Mrs. Lowery states, "Reducing gasoline consumption as
well as our collective impact on the earth's climate
should be national priorities. These, too, are our
priorities at GM and we recently told Congress what we're
doing to lessen our dependence on petroleum and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions."
So, what exactly is GM
doing?
To discuss what GM is doing correctly, Mrs.
Lowery decides it's time to dispel some myths.
Myth 1 is that GM doesn't care about the environment. To
counter, Lowery asserts that GM will invest billions
developing plug-in
hybrids, fuel cell vehicles and electric vehicles. In
addition, GM has more than 2 million flex-fuel vehicles on
the road.
While it is true that GM will invest billions, GM has also
been given, minimally, hundreds of millions to develop
such vehicles. Thus far, the American taxpayer has
received ZERO return on that investment. So, I'd say GM
owes America already.
Even worse, GM's 2 million flex-fuel vehicles were
developed when GM knew full well that most would never
utilize ethanol. Besides, corn based ethanol is far from
environmentally friendly. And even worse, GM's flex-fuel
program has enabled GM to claim CAFE credits by adding
cheap flex-fuel technology to millions of automobiles. If
not for this CAFE loophole, GM would be in violation of
CAFE and would have to pay significant penalties. How many
hundreds of millions of dollars - dare I say billions -
has this loophole saved GM while increasing America's
foreign oil dependency?
While GM might not be as bad as portrayed, they certainly
don't deserve any environmental rewards.
Myth 2 is that CAFE works. Here I agree with GM that it
doesn't, otherwise GM wouldn't have been able to utilize
flex-fuel loopholes to grossly violate CAFE. Also, Lowery
asserts that since CAFE, "GM has improved its fuel
economy more than any other major auto manufacturer,
" yet GM still significantly trails both Toyota and
Honda on fleet fuel economy. More interesting, how much of
this fuel economy improvement is hidden in flex-fuel
credits?
Still, Lowery points out correctly that since CAFE,
America's energy dependence has gone up drastically.
Consequently, Lowery again points to bio-fuels as a far
better solution than CAFE. Apparently, building
significantly more fuel efficient vehicles isn't quite as
important as fuel, which is kind of ironic - to blame it
all on fuel. In reality, shouldn't an automaker be focused
on how to make automobiles more fuel efficient, rather
than on developing new fuels - something which requires
far less automaker responsibility and action?
Can biofuels really do so
much?
No. Biofuels can make an important contribution to global
warming and energy independence, but it will take
significantly more fuel efficient vehicles AND biofuels to
provide any real help. Moreover, corn-based biofuels are
not a good bio-fuel and without massive incentives - tax
dollars -to both corn growers and ethanol refiners,
corn-based biofuels make no sense. Already just the small
amount of corn-based ethanol used today is pushing the
price of many foods, even beer, higher. The more ethanol,
the more your food is going to cost.
On the good side, corn-based ethanol might help develop
far more efficient and environmentally friendly cellulosic
ethanol technologies, but even that it is not enough.
Also, does America really have unlimited capacity to
produce cellulosic ethanol? Will global warming affect
this capacity? Will droughts or floods? Will ever
increasing congestion and urban sprawl? Can any fuel,
other than possibly hydrogen, ever match America's growing
fuel demands? How much will cellulosic ethanol affect food
prices?
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