I am excited to join leaders in clean car technologies and jobs at the White House “Advanced Vehicles: Driving Growth” event on Wednesday, June 27th. Auto industry manufacturers, labor leaders, investors, environmentalists and leaders in regional economic development will all be on hand to discuss the recent renaissance in the auto sector and the outlook under improving vehicle fuel economy and carbon pollution standards.
I am honored to participate on behalf of NRDC to help moderate one of the two panels.
From an environmental perspective, recent trends of increasing new car fuel economy and decreasing carbon pollution are encouraging. Model year 2012 brought a bumper-crop of clean, fuel-efficient models to showrooms. As described in NRDC’s “Relieving Pain at the Pump” analysis, the number of fuel-efficient models has doubled since 2009, the year President Obama announced historic improvements for MY 2012 to 2016. Thanks to the standards, consumers have more choices that can save thousands of dollars at the pump.
Consumer choice, pollution reduction and gas savings will only improve as standards continue to ramp-up. The Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency are working to finalize new 2017 to 2025 standards that will cut emissions and fuel consumption roughly in half compared to vehicles on the road today.
Proposed standards, reaching the equivalent of 54.5 mpg in 2025, will continue to drive growth in employment too. As described in “Supplying Ingenuity,” a joint report of NRDC, the National Wildlife Federation and the United Auto Workers, more than 150,000 workers in the automotive supply chain are building the components to make cars go farther on a gallon of gas.
We will continue to watch the progress being made in auto-sector jobs and keep readers updated through a new website: www.DrivingGrowth.org. Check it out. (This website project has been in progress for months and it’s merely a coincidence that it has a similar name to the White House event.)
According to a report being released later today by the BlueGreen Alliance and ACEEE, an estimated 570,000 jobs will be added economy-wide by 2030 as result of the 54.5 mpg standards. Not only will more auto industry workers be employed to make efficient vehicles but the fuel-savings to consumers will be invested into the broader economy to create jobs.
The proposed standards will also help ensure that the United States is a leader in clean, efficient vehicle technology. At Wednesday’s forum, we will hear industry leaders and workers talk about innovations that put the United States at the forefront of design and manufacturing of internal combustion engine vehicles but also hold the promise to make the U.S. a global leader in more advanced vehicles, such as plug-in electric vehicles.
It’s an exciting time of renaissance in the auto sector and I’m looking forward to hearing from some those leading the way. You can tune in as it happens at www.whitehouse.gov/live starting at 2:30 pm eastern or follow Twitter at #DrivetheFuture, @DrivingGrowth and @NRDC.