 Environment - January 19, 2008 |
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| Feds take aim at efficiency standards |
By Kevin Ma
Staff Writer
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The federal government should aim higher when it comes to setting national fuel-efficiency standards, say observers.
Federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon said Thursday the government had begun talks to set mandatory national fuel economy standards for cars and trucks. Canada now has voluntary standards.
Cannon said Canada’s standard would be at least as stringent as the one proposed by the U.S., which would see all new cars get on average 100 kilometres per 6.7 litres by 2020. Canadian cars now average 100 km per 8.6 litres, according to Transport Canada.
"By 2020, the average new vehicle in Canada will have a fuel consumption better than some of today’s hybrid cars," Cannon said, speaking at the Montreal International Auto Show, and emit less greenhouse gas than 93 per cent of the cars listed in the 2008 Fuel Consumption Guide.
Environmentalists criticized the announcement, arguing the government should follow California’s more stringent targets. "Those regulations would require car manufacturers to reduce emissions right now in 2009," said John Bennett of the environmental group Climate for Change, with further reductions each year until 2016. If Canada follows America’s standard, he argued, there would be no mandated improvement in fuel use until 2020 and Canadian cars would burn about 37 billion more litres of fuel. "That’s a huge amount of greenhouse gases."
It’s a start, say locals
Canada has had voluntary fuel efficiency standards for 30 years, according to a federal background document, but they have not stopped fuel use from rising. Cars and trucks now account for 12 per cent of all Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions as a result. This happened because car manufacturers have been making bigger and faster cars, the report found — about 20 per cent heavier and 25 per cent faster since 1985, according to one U.S. study.
Now, said Don Szarko of the Alberta Motor Association, higher fuel prices are driving people towards more efficient cars. There were about 140 hybrid cars registered in Alberta in 2005, he noted, up from 19 in 2000. "It’s encouraging to see the U.S. really raising the bar" in terms of efficiency, he said, as they would push manufacturers to build more efficient cars.
Szarko said the proposed 6.7-litre standard was a good start for the government, although the AMA has called for 5.7 litres by 2010. "The good news is we now have momentum, we’re no longer sitting idle," he said. "We need a consistent year-on-year strategy to improve our [fuel] standards."
It’s unclear what higher standards will do to the price of cars, Bennett said. The state of California estimated that its requirements would add about $17-to-$1,064 to the cost of an average car, but would save owners up to $7 a month on gas.
Bennett emphasised the need to bring in higher standards as soon as possible. "There’s a global climate crisis that has to be responded to and one of the places we have to deal with it is in our cars."
The government will publish draft fuel regulations by the end of the year. Anyone with an interest in the standards should send their views in writing to Transport Canada by March 15. |
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