In a December 6 White House press briefing, press secretary Dana Perino said the White House has a proposal for a new increase in the CAFE standard for light trucks and SUVs. The president has full control of the CAFE standard for light trucks (which includes SUVs but not passenger cars) and has used it twice in his administration. The news of a proposed, third change in SUV CAFE came in a response to a question on the support for the compromise reached on CAFE two weeks ago. As we reported, the president does not support the CAFE standards that are currently in the energy bill and threatened to the veto the energy bill because of it. Here is exactly what Dana said;

Q: I know there are a number of provisions in there that have drawn veto threats, but what about the CAFE standards? Is that -- the language that's in the bill now, that's in the House version, is that acceptable to the administration?

A: No, the way that it's drafted is not. The President wants to have increases in CAFE standards. He already has increased CAFE standards for SUVs and light trucks already twice in this administration. We have a proposal right now for a third. The reason he could do that is because under the law, he has the authority to do it. He doesn't have that authority on passenger cars. He's asked Congress for it for the last two years. They've not acted on it. So we've asked Secretary Peters and EPA Administrator Johnson to work towards that. But the way that language was specifically written, we can't support it in the House bill, but it might be able to get fixed in the conference committee.

Bush actually lost a law suit recently which said he did not do enough on CAFE, so, that proposal may just be reaction to the law suit. Friday morning, less than a day after the House passed the Energy Bill, the Senate killed it, with a vote of 53 for and 43 against, 7 fewer votes for the needed 60 to get it to the president's desk. The Senate will re-write the bill and there is some talk of making CAFE a bill all by itself. The CAFE compromise was a part of a larger bill and Dingell, one might argue, only made the compromise for the greater good of the energy bill. So, while CAFE is a settled issue in the energy bill, by itself, there might be changes.

Whats going to happen? I would not expect much before next year because there is talk that everyone might leave for Christmas vacation as early as Friday. Even if the Energy Bill or separate CAFE bill is sent to the house, it will probably go through a few more passes between the House and the Senate before going to the White House, which can let it sit for a while as well. In totally unrelated news (he said sarcastically) the Congress and President's approval ratings are at all time lows because they don't seem to be getting anything done.

[Source: White House, AutoBlog]

What did I tell ya? The great photo above is of Bush and Dingell from 2005 but it could have been two days ago. According to the Detroit News, the House has delayed the energy bill vote. As we reported, CAFE is largely settled and even Toyota has come out in support of the new agreement. Trouble is, John Dingell has a problem with it, and it's the same problem, it turns out, that the White House mentioned in a letter to Congress threatening to veto the bill again. So, do they just have to dot some i's and cross some t's on which agency will set CAFE? I doubt it because you see red herrings like this all the time in the polite debates in the Congress.

I would guess that once Bush put out the veto threat, Pelosi lost whatever votes she took from Dingell. When the rough draft of the bill is in Dingell's hands again, suddenly a change that was only going to be which agency will regulate, has 35 MPG crossed out and 27 put in its place. Will that happen? At this rate, we should find out by 2030 when the bill requires the change. It's also possible they pick an agency and the White House takes CAFE out of its letters to Congress. I doubt it because Dingell is like a ninja: if you see him, you are already dead.

Related:

• Fuel economy bill has seventy percent chance of passage
• White House threatens to veto energy bill again

[Source: The Detroit News]

Recently we reported that the CAFE issue was largely settled in the energy bill. On CSPAN Monday, Edmund Andrews of the New York Times even dared to say Dingell "lost." Do not underestimate the power of the Dingell side, you have no idea of the power he possesses. Don't believe me? Let's keep in mind that, according to the Detroit News, Dingel did an interview Saturday where he said he got no help from the White House.

On Monday, though, the White House threatened to veto the bill noting problems with which agency would regulate CAFE, which I find an odd problem for the Bush Administration to bring up now. I think this is Bush responding to Dingell's wishes, so don't be surprised if we see the supposedly settled issue of CAFE revisited many more times or the energy bill not pass at all because of issues with CAFE. Dingell is all powerful and makes the Sith Lord look like hash browns.

Related:

• Bush might veto the energy bill
• Bush might bring out the veto pen to strike 35 mpg dead
• Bush tells Congress how to write an energy bill
• Rep. John Dingell drops his fuel economy proposal

[Source: Detroit News, CSPAN]

The traditional pardoned White House turkeys were delivered by a Flex Fuel Ford F-150 running on E85. The turkeys were named "May" and "Flower" and not "the names the Vice President suggested, which was 'Lunch' and 'Dinner,'" joked President Bush. The turkeys were delivered by Hotel Washington bellhops, in dog carriers, at 8:10 am to the waiting Ford F-150 as camera crews from Toyko TV and NBC News recorded the entire thing. The Ford drove two blocks to the White House.

Ziad Ojakli, Ford's group vice president for government and community relations, said "Corn is the turkeys' fuel and the truck's. ... Ford is pleased to provide the getaway vehicle in the turkey-cade." After the pardoning ceremony at noon, the turkeys in a dozen-car motorcade, escorted by 5 police motorbikes and a police car with sirens on, drove to Dulles Airport. The turkeys are going to Disneyland. Yes, Disneyland. They are going to be grand marshals of Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

[Source: Detroit News]

President Bush's proposal to cut overall gasoline consumption by 20 percent over 10 years is drawing all sorts of fire from domestic automakers and the UAW. They say the plan is too expensive and not technologically feasible at this point. But that's not stopping the president from promoting his plan at GM and Ford assembly plants in the Kansas City area next week. He'll use the Saturn Aura Green Line and Ford Escape Hybrid as backdrops to push his agenda. The president has been seen with electric vehicles (above) and in biofuel labs lately as he tries to address green issues.

[Source: Associated Press via BusinessWeek.com]

An earlier post here on ABG brought attention to the fact that President Bush viewed the Phoenix Motorcars SUT and a plug-in hybrid version of the Toyota Prius at request of the White House. We discussed the vehicles and why they were there, which was in an effort to promote alternative fuels and the technology required for their use to meet the goals outlined by the President in his State of the Union Speech. Now, we will analyze what the President said regarding the vehicles and the goals as set forth.

First, the President viewed a Toyota Prius which had been converted to plug-in capability. This was accomplished with the help of an extended battery pack with the necessary electronics and hardware to plug into an outlet. The presenter mentions that the vehicle returns about 45 mpg in hybrid mode and can run solely off electricity for about 40 miles. As pointed out in the video, 78 percent of the population could use this car for their commute running solely on electric power. President Bush said, "So, this is becoming a reality." The presenter answered, "It IS a reality, we drove this car here."

Please click through the break to continue reading this posting.

[Source: The White House]

The new Democratic Congress will be sworn in tomorrow, and the annual ritual of the Presidential State of the Union speech will follow in a few weeks' time. Last year, the Decider-in-Chief said America was "addicted to oil." What will his environmental and energy message be this year?

According to writer Caroline Daniel at MSNBC, it looks like there may be talk of raising CAFE standards and spending more money on hydrogen research. Any positive talk by Bush about the Kyoto protocol, though, remains a pipe dream.

But there is plenty that Bush could mention on the energy front that would make sense to me. I doubt he'll pass along any of these anti-consumption, non-corporate suggestions (this is the president who's post-terrorist attack cure was to tell people to go shopping, remember), but that won't stop me from writing them here.

• Drive less. Take a page from the Australian, Mr. Bush. You're supposedly so close to Prime Minister Howard. Ask him about the Australian Government's Green Vehicle Guide. Car sharing, carpooling, public transportation, biking, walking. There are a hundred ways to get around that don't involve the standard private car method. Let's use them.
  
• Support for truly clean electric cars through major investment in greener electricity generation. We know how to make electricity without slashing mountains in half and burning the coal we find inside. We also know how to make it without using nuclear energy. I don't expect a quick paradigm shift in the way our electricity is created, but we need to work on improving solar, wind, biomass and other truly green electricity generation techniques. Locally produced, clean energy is the way to go.
  
• I'll toss in raising the CAFE standards, because that's cool, too. And then maybe Bush'll name at least one thing on my list.
  
• A reality check on ethanol and hydrogen. I'm not against research into and production of these alternative fuels, but I'd like to see the President come clean with us about how long the hydrogen economy is going to take (and how much it will cost). The DOE has a good idea of what it'll take (decades), so he could go and ask them.

Maybe it won't matter that our President won't embrace my ideas or the three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) in the State of the Union. In the MSNBC piece, Daniel talked to at least one person, a "senior industry lobbyist," who is seriously nonplussed by Bush's energy record. "Energy policy has been the creation of Congress. Almost anything Bush says in the [State of the Union] speech is irrelevant the day after he says it," he or she said.

You can read last year's State of the Union speech after the jump on the White House site (Update: I removed the text because it made scrolling down to the comments difficult).

[Source: Caroline Daniel / MSNBC]

On Tuesday, November 14, the CEO's of the three Detroit based car-makers finally got the White House meeting that they've been waiting for so many months. GM's Rick Wagoner, Chrysler's Tom LaSorda, and Ford's Alan Mulally got to sit down with the President in the oval office for about an hour. Today the three companies issued a joint statement about the meeting and it has some interesting details about energy policy. Among the highlights were a voluntary committment to making half of their annual vehicle production capable of running on either E85 ethanol or biodiesel by 2012. Of course, in order to make this viable they want the federal government to continue providing incentives to encourage biofuel production and distribution. The companies also re-committed to the "25 by '25" initiative to get 25 percent of the nation's energy from renewable fuels by 2025 and also to double production cars and trucks that can run on renewable fuels by 2010. The full statement is available after the jump.

[Source: General Motors]

US Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman will promote Ethanol during an appearance at Ethanol Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway tomorrow, Energy Efficient Motorsport. Rahal Letterman Racing, which runs a car supported by Team Ethanol, invited Bodman, who will do a press conference about ethanol in racing and the more general future of alt-fuels in America. He will also meet with executives of the EPIC (Ethanol Promotion and Information Council).

In February, Bodman answered questions from Internet users as part of the White House's "Ask The White House" series. In that discussion, he called ethanol, "a key part of the solution to the problem of our future energy needs" and said that "cellulosic ethanol" should be cost-competitive by 2012, displacing up to 30 percent of the U.S.'s current petroleum-based fuel use.

[Source: EEMS, the White House]