Today’s Environment

October 28, 2008

· UPS, in partnership with the EPA, is rolling out a small test fleet of five hydraulic hybrid delivery trucks.  Gas 2.0 notes, “The new vehicles can achieve 50-70% better fuel economy, a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and pay for their extra expense in less than 3 years.”

· Oil closed even closer to $60 per barrel today and the average price of a gallon of gas dropped to $2.66.  This is the first time all year the price has dropped below 2007 levels.  “Since the record national average of $4.114 on July 7 and the California record of $4.588 reached June 16, prices have dropped by 35% and 32%, respectively.”

· This drop was in spite of a threatened production cut from OPEC.  Environmental Capital speculates that OPEC’s actions may actually be having a depressing effect on the market by “telegraphing that the global demand situation is worse than it thought and deteriorating quickly.”  EC also notes that “tighter credit threatens to delay or kill a big chunk of the offshore drilling rigs under construction around the world.”

· McClatchy reports, “the EPA is working at the Bush administration’s direction on a new rule that would weaken regulations for power plants, allowing them to increase emissions without adding pollution controls.  The Clean Air Act requires older plants that have their lives extended with new equipment to install pollution-control technology if their emissions increase. The rule change would allow plants to measure emissions on an hourly basis, rather than total yearly output. This way, plants could run for more hours and increase overall emissions without exceeding the threshold that would require adding pollution controls.”  The article also notes an urgency in the Bush Administration to pass the new rules since regulations finalized more than 60 days before the end of the current term are harder for the next administration to undo.

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