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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 2005)
BY KERA ABRAHAM Change in Gear tion’s attention when he told The New York Times Cities and states rev up to cut emissions that he didn’t need legisla- tive approval to enact the while D.C. drags in reverse. standards, and now he in- tends to follow through on his states and cities are lunging irst the old news: The U.S. is the word. Spokeswoman Holly ahead to reduce global warm- most fossil-fuel-hungry nation in Armstrong said that the governor ing, and Oregon and Eugene are the world. We’ve got 5 percent of Mayor Kitty Piercy plans to line item veto the lan- parts of that movement. the world’s people, but we belch out a quarter guage in the state budget that prohibits the of the world’s greenhouse gases, the primary The most significant effort is the estab- DEQ from pursuing the stricter standards, contributors to global warming. While a ma- lishment of a West Coast “clean car corridor.” leaving Oregon free to align with efforts jority of nations moves ahead to reduce emis- In 2004, California enacted a law requiring south and north of the state border. sions in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol, cars and light trucks to cut their greenhouse Solidarity among states demanding the U.S. government just continues to blow gas emissions by 30 percent, and toxic and cleaner vehicles will likely force domestic smoke. smog-causing pollutants by 20 percent, by auto makers to churn out lower-emission cars 2016. Last spring, the state of Washington After shunning Kyoto (the U.N. agreement despite the lack of direction from passed a bill to adopt California’s standards to curb global warming, which Clinton signed Washington, D.C. In recent years, Detroit — but only on the condition that Oregon fol- in 1998 and Bush retracted in 2001), the White auto makers have shunned the domestic lows suit. House announced a plan that amounts to ask- cleaner-car market, leaving it to Japanese The Alliance of Automobile Manufact- ing termites infesting a wooden mansion to auto makers to produce hybrid electric and urers, an industry group representing most please chew a little slower. The Bush adminis- low-emission vehicles. A July EPA report major automakers, shifted into high gear. tration claims that it can reduce greenhouse shows that today’s new domestic cars and Lobbyists leaned hard on Salem lawmakers gases 18 percent by 2012 through voluntary trucks are slightly less fuel-efficient than they to prevent Oregon from implementing the cutbacks, but the Pew Center on Global were in the late 1980s. new standards, and initially, they succeeded. Climate Change estimates that the policy will But California alone controls more than The Legislature passed a state budget that actually result in a 12 percent increase in 10 percent of Detroit’s auto market. Add in prohibited the Department of Environmental greenhouse gas emissions. On July 29, the the other states preparing to adopt Cali’s stan- Quality from spending any money on adopt- U.S. Congress passed an energy bill, drafted in dards — Washington, Oregon, New York, ing or enforcing stricter auto emission stan- secret, that awards $8.4 billion in tax breaks to New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, dards over the next two years. oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear power com- Vermont and Maine — and the figure be- But Gov. Ted Kulongoski wouldn’t have panies. comes nearly 33 percent. it. Getting Oregon in step with California’s Now the new news: While the Bush ad- States aren’t the only ones playing Clean tailpipe rules was his baby. He caught the na- ministration drags its oil-heavy feet, American F Air Red Rover. Cities have a role to play, too, and Eugene’s got its game face on. At the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Chicago in June, Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy joined hun- dreds of other mayors in signing a resolution calling for cities to reduce greenhouse gases to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012, à la Kyoto. And at the Sundance Summit on Climate Protection in July, Piercy joined 45 other U.S. mayors in Salt Lake City to dis- cuss the causes and potential solutions to global warming. Piercy came back to Eugene inspired. She noted that Eugene is already taking many steps toward energy conservation: shifting the city’s fleet to biofuels and low-emission vehicles, changing street lights to low-energy LED bulbs, improving public transportation and offering incentives for energy-efficient buildings. She says that the city’s Sustainable Business Initiative will provide a framework for local businesses to become both econom- ically and environmentally smarter. But Piercy admits that there’s much more work to do. “We could take some substantial leaps forward,” she says. “The federal gov- ernment is not taking the initiative that it needs to on this issue, and time is running out. We know it’s in the best health interest of our world to be addressing this, but the truth is, it makes the most economic sense too. This is a great opportunity for Eugene to make a dif- ference in the ways that we can.” ew BY ALAN PITTMAN Getting Gas Pump price jump guzzles $32 million/ year out of the local economy. T he surge in gas prices this year will suck an extra $32 million per year out of local wallets if prices remain high. That’s about $137 for every adult and child in Eugene/Springfield, according to EW analysis of local gas price data and statistics on non-commercial vehicle use within the metro area. Locals consume about $127 million of fuel a year at today’s prices, and that’s up from $95 million at last year’s prices. Gas prices are about a third higher today than a year ago, ac- cording to American Automobile Association surveys. Just since last month, they’re up 8 percent. The $32 million sent to oil companies could take a bite out of the local economy. The lost money is about enough for 800 jobs paying $40,000 a year in salary and benefits. The hike in gas prices hits low-wage car commuters the hardest. The average minimum-wage earner loses about 1 per- cent of his/her pay to the higher pump prices. Local Congressman Peter DeFazio has blamed oil corpora- tions for gouging consumers, pointing out that ExxonMobil just reported its third largest profits in history. DeFazio has intro- duced legislation to impose a windfall profits tax on oil compa- nies, impose profit caps, limit mo- nopolistic mergers, and require minimum gas inventory levels to smooth price spikes. Oil companies have blamed rising prices on rising demand in China and Asia and other market factors for the dramatic price increases. But energy corporations used the same kind of “per- fect storm” spin a few years ago with the West Coast electricity crisis. The spin was widely swallowed at the time, but later law- suits revealed that market manipulation by the Enron corpora- tion was to blame for soaring electricity prices. Of course, the easiest way for locals to reduce gas prices would be to use less gas. Just driving 10 percent less — by walking, biking, busing or carpooling a couple times a month — would save local wallets $13 million a year at current prices. Another option would be to drive cars that use less gas. Local cars average about 20 miles per gallon, according to Lane Council of Governments data. Increase that by 10 percent — with a smaller car or just by accelerating and driving more Cutting driving or increasing mileage would save on pollu- tion. Local cars spew about 143 tons of carbon dioxide every weekday. Driving less would also save taxes on ugly and expen- sive road projects that chew up land. The new I-5 interchange at the Gateway Mall will cost an estimated $150 million and the price of the proposed West Eugene Parkway is now at $170 mil- lion and rising. But the local area isn’t heading toward common sense when it comes to gas consumption. PeaceHealth plans to move 2,000 jobs from downtown out to the edge of town for long commutes. Local transportation plans are clogged with a long list of sprawl-inducing freeway projects and predict that driving rates and gas mileage will remain about the same while public transit use will reach only 2.5 percent of trips by the year 2025. In the end people may have little choice about driving. The concept of peak oil has grown increasingly mainstream — even ExxonMobil now acknowledges that world oil extraction has peaked and will now decline. Some predict that shortages and high prices will mean the end of suburbia and the abandonment of shopping mall sprawl. Already, Wal-Mart has blamed a fall in profits on rising gas prices. Although the transition could be painful if it’s abrupt, it may be good for the country. In Europe, gas prices are about double those in the U.S. and people drive far less. As a result, citizens enjoy more compact cities with far better transit service. With higher gas prices, European cities are often more walkable, healthy and livable, and less polluted, traffic-snarled and ugly than American cities with far cheaper gas. With the huge local and national investment in urban sprawl infra- structure, moving to a European model could be expensive. But in the long run, studies have shown that compact, transit-oriented cities are far more efficient in terms of saving time in traffic jams, extending expensive road, sewer, school, fire and other sprawling public infrastructure and services and, of course, in saving gas. ew Just driving 10 percent less — by walking, biking, busing or carpooling a couple times a month — would save local wallets $13 million a year at current prices. slowly — and local pocketbooks would save about $12 million a year. There’s already national reports of SUV sales falling this year by 20 to 30 percent and used SUVs losing their resale value. AUGUST 25, 2005 13
