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soot

EPA Sets Cleaner Fuel and Car Standards

Yesterday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized emission standards for cars and gasoline that will significantly reduce harmful pollution and in turn prevent thousands of premature deaths and illnesses related to respiratory ailments.

Based on extensive input from the public and a broad range of stakeholders, including public health groups, auto manufacturers, refiners, and states, the standards will also enable efficiency improvements in the cars and trucks we drive.

“These standards are a win for public health, a win for our environment, and a win for our pocketbooks,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. “By working with the auto industry, health groups, and other stakeholders, we’re continuing to build on the Obama Administration’s broader clean fuels and vehicles efforts that cut carbon pollution, clean the air we breathe, and save families money at the pump.”

The final standards will quickly and effectively cut harmful soot, smog and toxic emissions from cars and trucks. The Obama Administration’s actions to improve fuel economy and reduce greenhouse gases from these same vehicles will also result in average fuel savings of more than $8,000 by 2025 over a vehicle’s lifetime. The fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards covering model year vehicles from 2012-2025 are projected to save American families more than $1.7 trillion in fuel costs.

The standards will slash emissions establishing a 70 percent tighter particulate matter standard and virtually eliminating fuel vapor emissions. These standards will also reduce vehicle emissions of toxic air pollutants, such as benzene by up to 30 percent.

The final fuel standards will reduce gasoline sulfur levels by more than 60 percent — down from 30 to 10 parts per million (ppm) in 2017. Reducing sulfur in gasoline enables vehicle emission control technologies to perform more efficiently. New low-sulfur gas will provide significant and immediate health benefits because every gas-powered vehicle on the road built prior to these standards will run cleaner — cutting smog-forming NOx emissions by 260,000 tons in 2018.

Article appearing courtesy Environmental News Network.

03/04/2014 1 comment

Renewable Energy

Rethinking the Impact of Reducing Soot and Methane Emissions

written by Environmental News Network

Carbon dioxide is a heavy hitter when it comes to global climate change. But there are some other big players that contribute to rising temperatures as well including soot and methane. While some scientists have argued to cut these emissions, a new study suggests that targeting these emissions may make much less of an impact than previously thought.

08/19/2013 0 comment

Renewable Energy

New U.S.-Led Program Targets Reductions in Soot, Methane Emissions

written by Yale Environment 360

With efforts to curb global carbon dioxide emissions stalled, a group of nations, including the U.S., will unveil a new program to cut other pollutants that contribute to global warming.

The program, called the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants, will focus on emissions of soot, methane,

02/17/2012 0 comment

Energy Efficiency

‘Fast Action Strategies’ Could Buy Earth Some Time

written by Walter Wang

One of the issues raised during last years summit in Copenhagen was the need to recognize that carbon dioxide emissions are only part of the problem of global warming.

In fact, 50 percent of climate warming comes from non-CO2 factors like Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and black carbon, or soot, and these are issues that can be addressed and remedied much more quickly than CO2, which is known to stay in the atmosphere for a lengthy period.

“Fast Action Strategies” that focus on non-CO2 issues could reduce warming quickly, effectively buy some time while the pressing issues of CO2 reduction are addressed. The video clips below illustrate this:

03/22/2010 0 comment

Renewable Energy

World’s Pall of Black Carbon Can Be Eased With New Stoves

written by Yale Environment 360

Two billion people worldwide do their cooking on open fires, producing sooty pollution that shortens millions of lives and exacerbates global warming. If widely adopted, a new generation of inexpensive, durable cook stoves could go a long way toward alleviating this problem.

With a single, concerted initiative, says Lakshman Guruswami, the world could save millions of people in poor nations from respiratory ailments and early death, while dealing a big blow to global warming — and all at a surprisingly small cost.

“If we could supply cheap, clean-burning cook stoves to the large portion of the world that burns biomass,” says Guruswami, a Sri Lankan-born professor of international law at the University of Colorado, “we could address a significant international public health problem, and at the same stroke cut a major source of warming.”

Sooty, indoor air pollution from open wood or other biomass fires has long been linked to health problems and deaths. More recently, scientists have been surprised to learn that black carbon — not only from biomass fires but from dirty diesel engines and other sources — is a far larger contributor to global warming than previously suspected: The dark particles absorb and retain heat close to the Earth’s surface that might otherwise be reflected.

03/09/2010 5 comments