IHS Global Insight Perspective | |
Significance | The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is running into opposition to its "cool cars" regulation, which aims to reduce fuel consumption by keeping the interiors of cars cooler through window glazing that may or may not affect cell (mobile) phone reception. |
Implications | The CARB has also made news recently by supposedly threatening to withdraw from a corporate average fuel economy agreement that was weighted in its favour, but it has since denied making such a threat. |
Outlook | The CARB wields a great deal of influence with regards to automotive regulations and it continues to flex its new-found muscles with the latest administration. |
California's new "cool cars" initiative, in which the state has ruled that starting in 2012 all carmakers must prevent 45% of the sun's energy from entering a vehicle, rising to 60% by 2016, is drawing fire from the cellular (mobile) phone industry. In a letter to the state commission holding open hearings on the new regulation, due by the end of the month, CTIA-The Wireless Association claims that its independent testing indicates serious issues with cell phone reception when the windows are glazed as the new regulation calls for. The new requirement "significantly and negatively affects wireless device and network performance in a number of situations, including the completion capability and location accuracy of E-911 calls, particularly in rural areas", it said in the letter. In vehicles with full glazing, the drop in signal was 8–11 decibels, while partially glazed vehicles saw a median loss of 3–6 decibels. "This loss reduces the chances of call completion up to 50 percent in areas with no over-lapping cell site coverage", the group said. "Signal loss also leads to up to a 30 percent lower chance of successful E-911 call location in rural locations." The California Air Resources Board (CARB) maintains that its own testing found no fault with the operation of cell phones, but it said that it will consider all comments before issuing the final regulation.
In other regulatory news, the CARB has denied that it is threatening to renege on its agreement to support the latest round of federal corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards imposed by the Democratic administration. Early yesterday, it was reported that the CARB was planning on raising two issues that it wanted modified in the CAFE standards: it apparently wanted the credits given for electric vehicles to be reduced from the levels proposed by the federal government; and it wanted the idea of easing phase-in requirements between 2012 and 2015 to be rejected. The CARB reportedly said that the administration must address these concerns "in order to secure California's continued support". The statement provoked immediate condemnation from auto industry lobbyists. "We'd be very disappointed if California or any other stakeholder were looking to back out or change the terms", said Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers spokesman Charles Territo. Later in the day, however, the CARB denied that it was threatening to withdraw its support from the new CAFE standards. "The California Air Resources Board is fully committed to the agreement to establish a national vehicle greenhouse gas standard announced last May by President [Barack] Obama in the Rose Garden", said chairwoman Mary D. Nichols. "There are still difficult technical issues to be resolved, as is to be expected in developing any pioneering rule, but we are confident that they will be worked out successfully. We look forward to working with both the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] and the Department of Transportation in a spirit of cooperation to ensure the complete success of the Rose Garden agreement."
Outlook and Implications
Like many of the CARB's ideas, the "cool cars" regulation is not necessarily a bad one—by limiting how much solar energy can enter the car and heat the interior (a common issue in sunny California), the need for energy-sapping air conditioning could be reduced. This would in turn use less fuel, cost consumers less money, and produce less carbon dioxide (CO2). However, the cost to automakers (and subsequently consumers) could be such that it would take consumers five to 12 years to recoup this, depending on the price of gasoline (petrol). Toyota has complained that the move would require it to redesign all of the vehicles it sells in California that feature a navigation system as it uses an antenna embedded in the glass that would be hindered.
As for the CAFE issue, California asked for and eventually received an exemption to the Clean Air Act that allows it to set its own emissions standards for greenhouse gases independently of the U.S. government, allowing President Obama to fulfil a campaign promise to the state. However, this means that California is not bound by the CAFE rules, but it has instead voluntarily agreed to abide by the national CAFE standard until 2016, when another new standard is expected to be introduced. California's co-operation is therefore required in order to make sure that all 50 U.S. states apply the same standard; over a dozen had decided to follow California in setting their own standards prior to the Rose Garden agreement that brought all communities back under the federal umbrella by imposing strict new standards that matched the Californian rules. If the various states had succeeded in creating their own standards, a patchwork of regulations would have resulted, creating major costs and headaches for automakers and consumers alike.