Keystone XL Pipeline Denied

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Tara Holmes

Last week, President Obama stood firm against Republican pressure and big oil’s demands and denied TransCanada’s push for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. This is very good news for clean energy and environmental communities, however, TransCanada intends to swiftly propose a re-route of the massive pipeline through less “environmentally sensitive areas”, which include attempting to avoid Nebraska’s Ogallala Aquifer, an aquifer critical to Nebraska’s natural habitat, livelihood and farming community, never mind its fresh drinking water supply. This point of entry has been the main challenge for the company. It will be interesting to see where President Obama stands on the predicted newly proposed route, which is anticipated to arrive at his desk within two weeks.

The proposed $7 Billion Keystone XL pipeline would carry crude tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, across the middle of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico for refining and will inevitably be a delivery route for oil bound for overseas markets, mainly Latin America and Europe. According to Tar Sands Action, … “Gulf Coast refiners plan to refine the cheap Canadian crude supplied by the pipeline into diesel and other products for export … Much of the fuel refined from the pipeline’s heavy crude oil will never reach U.S. drivers’ tanks.”

For all of the associated domestic jobs being touted by Washington, DC, it’s wise to realize this proposed pipeline will only create a few temporary jobs, at best. This is not the energy market we should be striving for in 2012. We should be instead be investing in clean energy technologies and energy efficiency measures. The Canadian Boreal Forest, where much of the tar sands exist, is currently being leveled for expanded tar sands production. This forest is a pristine habitat for countless wildlife in addition to the rare Spirit Bear , an albino bear that lives only in this region of the world. There are also countless native tribes that call this region home. Sending millions of gallons of crude oil and oil tankers through pristine wild land is no way to secure our energy future or combat climate change. In fact, the pipeline will only accelerate climate change. The KeystoneXL protests that took place in Washington, DC this past summer reflect the urgency to cease tar sands expansion for fear of exacerbating climate change – the tar sands are said to release 10 to 45% more greenhouse gas emissions than combustion of other related fossil fuels.

While this week’s decision by the State Department and President Obama is a wise one, the political and financial might of the fossil fuel industry and TransCanada will fight back. It’s important to realize however that despite the influence of big oil, the voice of the concerned American citizen has played a significant role in this debate, and ultimately, Obama’s decision. With this in mind, it’s time to continue the push for a cleaner energy future – a future that does not include the tar sands.

Green Mobility in Freiburg

Posted on June 7, 2011 by John Bolduc

The Altstadt

Cars are prominent in Freiburg, but there is a different relationship between people, bicycles, transit and cars compared to home. Cars defer to pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit as they negotiate the city streets. Bicyclists and pedestrians move around each other fluidly. There is also a higher level of convenience in using non-automobile travel modes.

Freiburg has made the Altstadt – the old core of the city – a car-free zone. Only residents who live within the zone and service vehicles can drive in. Pedestrians, cyclists, and the tram are freer to move. Fraziska Breyer of the City government told us that when the car-free zone was proposed, businesses were very concerned that shoppers would shun the center. But the decision has instead made the old city a more attractive area for shoppers and visitors. The streets are bustling with people and cyclists are everywhere. To some degree there are too many cyclists in the old city. On the main street of Kaiser Joseph Strasse, the city had to prohibit bicycle parking near the area where the tram lines intersect because they were blocking walkers.

The tram (street car) system is excellent The trams do not for the most part run on separate rights-of-way. They run on rails in the street along with the cars and cyclists. Throughout the city, trams have traffic signal priority; the lights change as the trams approach to allow the tram to move through intersections. And the system makes it very easy to use the tram. Tickets can be bought at electronic vending machines and there are multiple choices – single rides, all day passes, group passes, etc. When you board the tram, there are no conductors or turnstiles to go through. Riders are expected to punch the tickets themselves to mark the time their use started. Conductors do spot checks and scofflaws can be fined. When waiting for the tram, there are electronic information boards that give riders real time information on when the next tram will arrive. There is also an extensive bus system, although I didn’t have the opportunity to ride a bus. To top it all off, the public transportation system is 100% powered by renewable energy – 80% hydro and 20% solar, wind, and other renewables.

There is an extensive network of bicycle lanes, paths, and roads. We were told there are 410 kilometers of these facilities. In some areas whole street segments are marked to give bicycles priorities. Cars can be on these bicycle roads, but they have to drive at similar speeds to cyclists and defer to them.

Traffic rules are enforced on cars and cyclists. A 30 kilometer per hour speed limit applies in the city center. It’s enforced by radar and photo. Cyclists are expected to follow traffic rules too. Frau Breyer said she once turned right at an intersection without stopping at a sign and was caught by the police. She received a ticket.

Freiburg has a non-profit car sharing association. It sounded like it has had a similar effect to Zipcar in Cambridge, providing an alternative for people who don’t want to own a car and eliminating the need for owning a second car.

Bike parking at the train station

Freiburg seems to take all modes of transit and weave them into a seamless system. Our study group took a bicycle tour of the city’s sustainability highlights. We rented bicycles at a shop housed in a building that also provided bicycle parking for a fee on two levels and car sharing below. The building was located at the main train station, which was intersected by the tram system. Buses and taxi stations were also located there. The whole system was reliable, flexible, safe, and enjoyable.

The transportation mode shares reported by the city in 1999 – the City said the data is being updated – is 23% pedestrian, 27% bicycles, 18% transit, 6% ride sharing, and 26% single occupancy driving. I’m not sure if that is all trips (I think that is so) or just commuting.

I wasn’t able to learn all the factors that enable Freiburg to have such a wonderful transportation system. I’m sure there are reasons why it is easier to have such a great system in Freiburg, but it makes you want to replicate it at home.

Next: Freiburg’s eco-villages – Reiselfeld and Vauban.

Freiburg – Greenest City in Europe?

Posted on June 3, 2011 by John Bolduc

Kaiser Joseph Strasse, in Freiburg Center

I’m on a personal study tour of Germany and Holland to see what German and Dutch cities are doing about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change. The tour is organized by ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, an organization that the City of Cambridge has been a member of since 1999. Our tour leader, Jade Jackson, is leading our group of 4 Canadians and 2 Americans through Freiburg and Dresden Germany, and then on to Bonn to attend the ICLEI Climate Resilient Communities conference. We will end up in Rotterdam in The Netherlands. I thought I would try to share what I see and learn along the way. I hope you find it useful and interesting.

In Cambridge, we often look to Europe for examples of how to make the city more sustainable given that we are a dense urban community that in many ways is more similar to European cities than American. On this tour, I’m looking to see how the cities here have implemented actions that we have thought about, and actions that we have not even considered yet, particularly in regard to adaptation.

Freiburg, of the Black Forest, is our first stop. It might be the greenest city in Europe [or the world?]. Renewable energy is a big focus here. But they also have a very admirable sustainable transportation system, waste management, and land use.

Freiburg’s old city center was largely destroyed in World War II. About 80% of the city center was bombed toward the end of the war. After the war, the city decided to keep the historic street pattern and re-build on the foundations of the destroyed buildings, reconstructing in the historic style. Much larger new development surrounds the old city, but within the city boundaries there are large areas devoted to farms, vineyards, and protected forests; about half of the city is open space. Today, Freiburg is a growing city of about 220,000 people with a major university and service base.

"Nuclear power, no thank you."

We met with Franziska Breyer, of the City’s environment agency, who presented the history and overview of the city’s sustainability efforts. Freiburg’s green movement began with anti-nuclear protests in 1973, when new nuclear plants were proposed just across the border in France and nuclear waste storage was proposed nearby in Germany. Those protests led to people thinking that they could not just be against nuclear power, but need to be for something. I visited Freiburg 30 years ago as I was involved myself during college in anti-nuclear protest at home and wanted to see what the fuss was about here. Ironically, as we arrived in Freiburg last weekend, there were again anti-nuclear protests taking place as the Conservative government reconsidered its nuclear policy in the wake of Fukushima and reversed course, deciding to plan to phase out nuclear energy by 2022. So I imagine the protests were part celebratory.

The alternatives Freiburg has come up with encompass energy efficient construction, solar energy, district energy, wind energy, biomass, a well-integrated, multi-modal transportation system, and waste reduction practices. I’m sure we didn’t hear about everything.

Freiburg has set a goal in 2007 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 1992 levels by 2030. As of 2009, the city has achieved an 18.6% reduction. The municipal government has a climate protection budget of 1.2 million Euros, which is largely funded by annual payments from utilities for use of public space for infrastructure. The budget does not include additional funds set aside for energy efficiency subsidies provided to residents (21 million Euros since 2003), investment in public facilities and infrastructure, transportation, and other services.

Frau Breyer talked about the sustainability concept that the city’s efforts are based on. While it is common to think of sustainability in terms of balancing the 3 “E’s” – ecology, economy, and equity, she said in Freiburg they see sustainability as fundamentally based on ecology and that this is not negotiable. Without a sound ecology, there cannot be a viable economy and equitable society. The economy and social welfare flow from this sound ecological base.

The city is working to grow its green economy. The green city initiatives are seen as a factor in attracting green businesses to locate in Freiburg. There are about 1,500 green businesses employing about 10,000 people. Of those ten thousand, about 1,500 people are employed in the solar energy sector.

The energy strategy is based on energy saving, efficient generation, and renewable energy. About 10% of the electricity is supplied by nuclear in Freiburg. About half is produced by co-generation units that also provide heat through district heating systems. In addition to larger co-gen units, there are about 90 small CHP units around the city.

Badenova Sports Stadium roofs covered with Solar PV

Solar energy is very visible around Freiburg. Currently 12.3 MW of solar capacity is in place, producing over 10 million kilowatt-hours annually. For context, the City of Cambridge consumes about 40 million kwh of total electricity annually,which is a small percentage of total use in Cambridge. Cambridge has close to 1 MW of solar PV in place. In Freiburg, solar thermal panels cover about 15,000 square meters. Solar PV has been ramped up by very generous feed-in tariffs created by the federal government, which pays owners for the electricity production. The federal government is now moving to phase out the feed-in tariffs as they believe they have served their function of creating a solar industry. We were told that while the feed-in tariffs have been successful in expanding the use of solar PV, the price of solar PV has not really decreased, which was one of the goals of the policy. And while solar panels are a common sight in Freiburg, they are installed on a minority of buildings.

There are 5 medium sized wind turbines installed on the hills around the city. They produce 14 million kwh every year, more than produced by all the solar PV panels.

Bugginger StrasseHi-Rise, first to meet Passivhaus energy standards

We were told that increasing efficiency in existing buildings remains a challenge. The City has invested 21 million Euros since 2003, which has leveraged an additional 23 million Euros. Generally the funds have been used toward efficiency improvements when buildings are undergoing major renovations. This investment has reached about 3 to 4% of the building stock.

The Vice Mayor said they see the future trend being toward more short-distance district heating, noting the high cost of installing infrastructure, and more micro-CHP.

There is more to admire in Freiburg’s energy practices, including their eco-villages with buildings meeting Passivhaus standards and Plus Energy houses.

Upcoming: Sustainable Transportation and Freiburg’s eco-villages – Vauban and Rieselfeld.

Nextransit: The Next Generation of Mobility

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Tara Holmes

So there’s a new iPhone app in town, actually a couple. Sure, iPhone apps have saturated the market, but these new apps, courtesy of Cambridge-based Nextransit, are something to pay attention to. In recent years, cities such as San Francisco, New York, DC and Boston have granted mobile app designers access to real-time transit GPS data, enabling commuters and local patrons alike the ability to not only predict, but to pinpoint when the next bus, or subway, will arrive. Say goodbye to waiting in the rain, or snow drifts as high as 10 feet — as with this past winter in Cambridge — for the next bus. Nextransit makes it a point to turn the typical bus ride into a calculated, visual, streamlined and, dare we say, even fun experience.

The Nextime app, which currently services Boston, DC, San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles, among other cities, has a unique and useful push notification tracking feature that allows users to be notified when they need to leave their home to catch the bus. No more guessing, missing or faltering through hard-to-navigate public transit maps; Nextime and it’s more Boston-centric Nexmap, are designed with the future in mind and are subsequently revolutionizing how people look at public transportation. And if recent press hasn’t scared you enough, more and more articles are predicting increased traffic gridlock to the point of immobility by 2040 for many major metropolitan regions, including Boston. Whatever your opinion about public transportation, ridership will dramatically increase in the coming years and services like Nextransit are going to be critical, as are increased subway, bus and high-speed rail infrustructure to accommodate this new demand. For the moment however, enjoy being on the cutting edge with Nextransit technology and soon your friends will be relying on you when they next have to catch the T!

Something to Learn From: Biking in the Netherlands

Posted on March 28, 2011 by mdlittlehale

Cycling in Groningen, Netherlands

Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to the Netherlands and visit many different areas within the country. I landed in Amsterdam and took a train roughly 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the city of Groningen in the northern part of the country. The trip took about as long as it takes to get from one end Boston to the other via the green line (sadly I’m only half joking here). It doesn’t take long to notice the public transportation system in the small European country is as efficient any.

Stepping out in Groningen, we made our way to catch a bus to the apartment where we would stay for the next few days. Finally outside of airports and train stations, I was able to take in Holland for the first time. Before I could enjoy it all, a bike flew by a few inches in front of me, bell ringing and some Dutch shouted in my direction. I was standing right in the middle of a bike lane that had more “traffic” than the road running parallel to it. I quickly came to realize why the Netherlands is the bike capital of the world. Bikes are locked up all over the place. There are even special garages to lock your bike up for an extended period of time. Thousands of bikes are housed in these garages at train stations every day.

Bike Garage outside of Central Station, Groningen, Netherlands

When cycling in Holland, almost every road has a separate bike lane, usually two lanes, running along side it. In Boston and other U.S. cities, we are used to the little bike lanes painted on the side of the road, with car traffic speeding by only inches away. Not here. Almost everyone owns a bike and can safely traverse the city at their own pace without worrying about car traffic. The bike lanes even have their own traffic lights. It gets a bit busy at major intersections; with traffic lights for car, bike, and pedestrian traffic, but they are all well labeled, making it easy to safely navigate even the busiest of areas.

There is no need to own one of the $1,600 road bikes that cruise many U.S. roads, either. In Holland, a majority of bikes are fairly basic – one speed, and pedal breaks – making this mode of transportation affordable for everyone. This also makes it a bit more bearable to find your bike stolen; a couple hundred Euros lost is much better than over 1,000. Still, bike theft is becoming more of a problem, and police are turning to arresting those who purchase stolen bikes in an attempt to cripple the black market. So, if you’re looking to get a bike, make sure its from a legitimate bike shop (they’re as frequent as Dunkin Donuts are in New England). Of course, nobody wants to lose their bike no matter how cheap it is, so a strong cable bike lock is necessity, along with a neat fixed lock on the rear tire that owners have to put a key into, and leave in to unlock the back wheel. Usually this key is attached to all your other keys, so you’ll never ride your bike away from home without your keys again!

I had the pleasure of enjoying some cycling of my own after settling in. We took the bikes out to get dinner on the other side of the city. It took us maybe ten minutes, with no problems. Its quite the rush cycling on your own road, or safely with traffic. In Holland, for the most part cars will stay well behind you until its completely safe to pass. Bikes are just a part of traffic, something that people have a hard time accepting in the United States it seems. Both the individual and collective benefits of this attitude are simple.

Bike and car traffic at an intersection, Groningen, Netherlands

Individually, transportation costs are incredibly low. The upfront cost for the bike depends on what you want of course. You can buy an expensive new bike, or go used for as little as a hundred Euros. Along with locks and repairs every once and while, that’s all it will cost you. Cycling being a major mode of transportation also benefits the community as whole. The emission of greenhouse gases is significantly reduced because there are many fewer cars on the road. Also, since its not always great weather for biking, the trend makes it even more important for the city to have an efficient public transportation system for those who rely on cycling but cant because of the weather, or any other reason for that matter.

While in Boston it is unlikely a bike lane can be added to every street, it is still important to continue to integrate biking onto our city streets. There is already good work being done with programs such as the growing bike-share program. The more work put into bike safety like that in the Netherlands, the more people will ditch their cars for a bike. It is truly a site to see more bikes at an intersection than cars. Cycling, a staple to Dutch society, is something that cities and countries around the world can learn from as part of bigger plans to curb carbon emissions, transportation costs, and increase energy efficiency.

Cycling through the bike garage, Groningen, Netherlands

Bike-Share Surge

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Tara Holmes

Boston’s bike-share program has spread to Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline and Arlington. Boston was vying to be the first city in the nation with a wide, successful program, but has struggled with funding over the past two years. Last July however, the federal government awarded $3 million to support Boston’s program, with the money earmarked for purchasing bicycles and docking stations. The program would allow riders to borrow a bike from a docking station for a short, set period of time, afterwards returning the bike to a different docking station for another rider to use. Minneapolis, Denver, Washington, D.C., and Montreal have launched similar programs and the Velib program in Paris, France has shown marked success with over 90,000 bikes currently in operation.

Nicole Freedman, Boston’s bike-share director, expects membership to reach 5,000 to 10,000 people in the first year of operation with fees ranging from $50 per year, to $10 per week, or, for the less frequent user, bikes could be borrowed by the hour for $5. Trips shorter than a half-hour would be free for members. With many U.S. urban centers looking to diversify their public transit portfolios, a robust bike-sharing program is key, particularly in a city like Cambridge where many bikers take to the streets on a regular basis. That said, “It’s not [necessarily] about cyclists,’’ Freedman pointed out. “It’s about making cycling so inexpensive and convenient and attractive that it is the preferred form of transportation.’’

The High-Speed Rail Future?

Posted on February 16, 2011 by Tara Holmes

Following the release of President Obama’s 2012 federal budget, buzz around high speed rail projects in the US has increased. In the budget, $8 billion is allocated for high speed rail projects in FY 2012 and $53 billion is allocated over the next six years. Vice President Biden, a self-proclaimed train lover and regular rider, stated recently “We know that public infrastructure investment increases private-sector productivity, promotes growth, and creates jobs.”

Nevertheless, debate on up-front costs, accessibility and ridership continues to haunt the high-speed rail future in the US, even though Ray LaHood, the current Secretary of Transportation, believes that no realistic alternative currently exists that makes more sense stating “…there is no amount of money that could build enough capacity on our highways and at airports to keep up with our expected population growth in coming decades. America’s population will grow by 70 million in the next 25 years and 100 million in the next 40 years. Adding capacity to an interstate highway in the congested Northeast would cost more than $40 million per mile and cause enormous traffic backups, assuming we even had the space. A relatively “inexpensive” airport runway can cost half a billion dollars to construct.” From LaHood’s quote alone, it’s clear an alternative to the existing train, car and airplane must take tangible shape, and soon.

High-speed rail is already regularly and heavily used in other parts of the world – France’s TGV, Japan’s Shinkansen and Shanghai’s Maglev Train to name a few of the successful lines. SNCF, the company that operates the TGV in France, has in fact proposed its services to the US a number of times with little to no movement from the US government. In addition, Talgo, a Spanish-owned rail manufacturer, recently set up business operations in Milwaukee, Wisconsin hiring more than 100 American workers with anticipated growth, however, when Governor Scott Walker closed the door on Wisconsin’s high-speed rail segment, Talgo ended its operations in that region and moved out. Amtrak’s Acela, which runs along the bustling Northeast corridor between Washington, DC and Boston, has demonstrated great success and high ridership, yet cannot match the high-speeds of TGV or Shinkansen, for example, due to federal speed regulation and existing landscape challenges. Nevertheless, high-speed rail segments are currently in plan and construction in Illinois and California with the aim of more to come.

That said, President Obama’s 2012 budget highlights the need to move high-speed rail to the front and center of the economic agenda. High-speed rail creates long-term domestic jobs, decreases carbon emissions through an efficient method of mass transportation and connects US business centers and cities in a much more streamlined, accessible – and rapid – way than what currently exists. As Ray LaHood said, “President Obama is launching a high-speed rail network that will serve 80% of Americans and its legacy will be more than trains, tracks, and ties. It will be an economy on the move and a future that we are prepared to win.”

Everyday Smart Alternatives to Car Congestion Woes

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Tara Holmes

Sick of traffic? Tired of the long, isolated commute to and from the office? You’re not alone, and many analysts say it’s only going to get worse. In fact, according to a recent Grist article, Texas A&M just released its Urban Mobility Report, a report that quantifies just how much of a toll daily commuting and car congestion take on your physical, financial and emotional well being. Not to mention how much personal time you lose sitting idle in traffic. It was also reported that metro Chicago and DC are the worst-off given the current “years delay per auto commuter” index. Astoundingly, Chicagoan and Washingtonian car commuters lose 70 hours of their lives to rush-hour traffic every year. These cities are, not surprisingly, followed closely by Los Angeles at 63 hours and Houston at 58 hours.

Thankfully, there are alternatives if you’re willing to alter your lifestyle a bit and are willing to get to know your neighbors. Relay Rides, a startup that just launched recently in Boston, aims at car sharing as a better, more transparent modern-day model for car users. Riders can “rent out” their car by the hour to those in need of wheels. Need an extra incentive? The owner can make upwards of a few thousand dollars a year just by doing so, and insurance is covered by Relay Rides. There are also (of course) Zipcar and City CarShare in San Francisco, to name a few.

If you’re not into cars, and you live in an urban center, there are often subway lines or buses you can take. While at first many people dismiss public transportation in the US as old and unreliable, it’s an essential public service that needs consumer support to thrive and improve. Imagine if each person you saw on the T coming home from work was instead driving? How many more cars would be added to the road? It’s simply unfathomable. So, instead of festering in your car each day with road rage, explore your options for car sharing, or public transportation. Or, simply good old fashioned car-pooling. You get to meet new people, plus it’s good for your soul and the environment!

Massachusetts Plans for the Clean Energy Future

Posted on December 30, 2010 by Tara Holmes

On December 29th, Massachusetts officials announced a state-wide plan to cut heat-trapping carbon gases emitted by homes, cars and businesses in the state by 25 percent below 1990 levels over the next decade. The targets set by the plan are the highest allowed under climate legislation passed by the state in 2008 and among the most stringent in the nation. This aligns Massachusetts with states like California and New Mexico, who have already announced similar action.

The Massachusetts plan relies mainly on existing programs such as energy-efficiency standards for building construction, renewable-energy mandates and curbs in the electricity sector under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, of which Massachusetts is a signatory. Ian Bowles, the state’s energy and environmental secretary, highlighted that the plan is an example of how a state can alter its energy profile with minimal economic impact and predicts instead a net gain in jobs for Massachusetts in the clean energy sector.

Debra Boronski, president of the Massachusetts Chamber of Business and Industry, has doubts about the plan stating, “Our biggest concern — even though it is right to conserve energy — is that alternative resources have to be cost-effective … As far as we know, in Massachusetts, research has shown that alternative energy is more expensive.”

Interestingly, data released by state officials indicated that more than one-third of the total greenhouse-gas emissions in Massachusetts come from the transportation sector. In response to this information, Mr. Bowles announced the state will begin a pilot “Pay As You Drive” program giving drivers an incentive to cut back on unnecessary travel by linking car-insurance premiums to miles driven. Congress has authorized $15 million in grants to insure low-income drivers do not suffer an unequal burden.

Other energy options include hydroelectric power from Quebec, weatherization for resident homes, and economic incentives for homeowners to replace oil-fueled furnaces with more efficient models.

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Cambridge Energy Alliance is available to help guide you through the above-mentioned process of weatherization as well as retrofitting your home- all starting with signing you up to have your home looked at. If you would like to take advantage of your free energy assessment (which you have each already paid for via utility bills), please head to the CEA sign-up page, or call their Energy Advising line at 1-617-491-0488, extension 121 today!

Calling for a Lighter Fleet

Posted on November 2, 2010 by Tara Holmes

The Massachusetts Chapter of the Sierra Club is urging Boston-area residents to come out and voice their support for a first-ever increase of emissions standards for medium and heavy-duty trucks. The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation announced a proposal calling for a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and fuel consumption from heavy trucks and 7-10% reductions from other trucks between 2014-2018. The EPA and DOT are holding a hearing in Boston later this month to discuss this proposal; the trucking industry is expected to oppose the standards.

The vehicles covered by this announcement consume 20% of all on-road transportation fuel used each year, despite representing only 4% of all vehicles on the road. Furthermore, unlike passenger vehicles, these large pickups, freight trucks and garbage trucks (for example), have never been subject to federal fuel efficiency or global warming tailpipe pollution standards.

While the EPA/DOT’s green-friendly proposal demonstrates improvement over existing standards, the Sierra Club, among other environmental groups, have expressed dissatisfaction with the standards, calling for even higher emissions reductions within a similar period of time. Specifically, asking for a 35% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions from long haul tractors pulling van trailers by 2018.

In response to this announcement, the Sierra Club is urging citizens to come out, voice their opinion and support increased emission standards that cut greenhouse gas pollution under the Clean Air Act. Please see below for specifics on how you can become directly involved!

For further information contact:

James McCaffrey or Gina Coplon-Newfield, or call 617-423-5775

Thursday November 18, 2010, 10am-5pm

Hyatt Regency Cambridge, 575 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA

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