Last week, President Obama signed an agreement with 13 major automakers from around the world, to “pursue the next phase” in the Administration’s national vehicle program—a plan to increase fuel economy to 54.5 miles per gallon for cars and light-duty trucks by Model Year 2025.
The expectation is that these new fuel standards will result in a cost of almost $1.7 trillion dollars in fuel cost savings. Additionally, achieving these new benchmarks will save the nation the equivalent of 12 billion barrels of oil and reduce oil consumption by 2.2 million barrels a day by 2025, bringing us to a overall fossil fuel consumption number that is half of the oil we currently import from OPEC nations every day.
In a statement, Global Automakers’ President and CEO Michael J. Stanton said, “These standards will be tough to meet, but our members accept the challenge. We are fortunate to have a national plan that includes a midterm review, and we look forward to working alongside the EPA, DOT, and CARB on ironing out the details as the proposal moves through the federal regulatory process.”
The Chrysler Group also released a statement in support of the new standards that, in part, said Chrysler Group echoed support for “a single, national, and coordinated program that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance our country’s energy security.
And speaking of vehicle fuel efficiency, I’m excited to announce a new webinar hosted by Forester University, a new endeavor recently launched by Forester Media, Inc., Distributed Energy’s parent company. The webinar, scheduled for Thursday, August 11 at 2 p.m. EST, will be hosted by Mark J. Torresani, PE. Torresani, Senior Project Engineer for Cornerstone Environmental Group LLC, brings 24 years of experience on local, regional, national, and international engineering projects dealing with biogas and waste materials. Currently, he is the head of Cornerstone Environmental Group’s design team for developing biogas-to-vehicle fuel projects and technologies, specifically the design, construction, integration, and operation of biogas systems with waste management systems into a comprehensive solution.
The webinar, entitled “Greening the Fleet with Biogas” will focus on “the opportunities and potential savings of using biogas to fuel fleets of all sizes. Learn the technical and financial aspects, as well as its financial and environmental benefits based on real-world data.” So whether you need continuing education units or your excited about the opportunity to interact with experts in water resource management, stormwater management, erosion and sediment control, earthmoving activities, municipal solid waste management, or distributed generation and energy efficiency, check out Forester University for access to Mark J. Torresani’s presentation, as well as a whole slew of other educational webinars on a variety of topics.
For information about Forester University, go to: http://foresteruniversity.net/index.html.
To sign up for “Greening the Fleet with Biogas", go to: http://foresteruniversity.net/greening-the-fleet-with-biogas.html.