Natural Gas Cars Get a Boost From Obama's New Fuel Standards

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

September 10, 2012 | 3:30 PM

Gabriel Bouys / AFP/Getty

Filling up the Honda Civic GX, a natural gas passenger car.

Obama’s new fuel-efficiency standards, which would increase the average fuel economy of new vehicles to 54.5 mpg by 2025, include incentives for automakers to build electric and fuel-cell powered cars. Natural gas powered vehicles are also on that list. But as Politico reports, that wasn’t always the case.

“In earlier drafts of the standards, incentives for alternative-fuel vehicles did not apply to natural gas.
But in a series of meetings, the natural gas industry and some automakers hammered away at the White House, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department to argue that encouraging broader use of gas-powered vehicles wouldn’t mean doubling down on carbon-dioxide-emitting fossil fuels. They also pushed the message that natural gas — abundant in the United States and not tied to volatile global prices the way gasoline is — represents a win for national security.”

Environmental groups opposed the inclusion of natural gas powered cars, saying cars using fossil fuels shouldn’t give car manufacturers credit toward the new standards. But according to Politico, threats of a lawsuit helped change the Administration’s position.

In their presentation, the gas groups said excluding natural gas from the credit system would violate the Administrative Procedure Act by not showing a “rational nexus” between facts and the agencies’ decision. They also pointed to a January 2011 executive order in which Obama said regulations must protect “public health, welfare, safety and our environment while promoting economic growth, innovation, competitiveness and job creation.”

Industry also made the case that natural gas vehicles would serve as a “bridge” to developing fuel-cell powered cars and trucks. A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey, also pushed for the inclusion of natural gas vehicles in the mix.