In the News

Northstar Developer Invests in Hybrid SUV Technology
date posted: December 22 2005

Lake Tahoe Report #103
Feb. 7, 2005
By John Cobourn and Heather Segale


More and more companies are investing in new technologies to try to make their businesses perform better from an environmental standpoint. East-West Partners, the developer currently rebuilding and enlarging the Village at Northstar, is one such company. In addition to using recycled steel in the new structures, East-West has invested in the new Ford Escape SUV, which features hybrid technology. It is the first four-wheel drive SUV with a hybrid engine. It gets over 30 miles per gallon (mpg), combined, city and highway driving.

Aaron Revere, director of environmental initiatives for East-West, says he looks forward to expanding his corporate fleet of environmentally friendly vehicles to help stimulate demand and encourage car companies to develop more of them.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Green Vehicle Guide,” there are a number of vehicles that are highly fuel-efficient, with fuel-efficiency ranging from 34 to 66 mpg. These include the Honda Insight, the Mini Cooper, the Toyota Prius Hybrid, and the Honda Civic Hybrid. All these smaller vehicles get even higher gas mileage than the new Hybrid Ford Escape.

Why might people want to buy cars that get mileage in the 30 to 60 miles per gallon range?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states that purchasing fuel-efficient cars is important for protecting the environment, conserving resources for future generations, saving money at the pump and reducing foreign oil imports. Vehicles with better fuel economy may produce less air pollution over time; and that is good for Lake Tahoe because research shows that a major source of nitrogen to Lake Tahoe is air pollution from auto emissions.

According to the Worldwatch Institute, oil consumption in the United States has increased over the past decade by nearly 2.7 million barrels a day – more oil than is used daily in India and Pakistan combined, which together contain more than four times as many people as the United States. Transportation accounts for 95 percent of global oil consumption. In the United States, oil use has doubled since 1960. With only 2 percent of the earth’s oil reserves, and with 4.5 percent of the world’s population, the United States remains the world’s largest oil consumer, devouring more than one-third of the global total.

The most significant factor in rising energy consumption for transportation is growing reliance on the private car. Nearly half the vehicles that Americans buy now are fuel-inefficient SUVs and light trucks. If current trends continue, by 2030, half of the world’s passenger vehicles will be SUVs and light trucks. Many popular SUVs and light trucks get only 13 mpg in the city and 18 mpg on the highway.

This trend of expanding vehicle size and weight has wiped out more than 20 years of fuel-efficiency improvements gained in the United States through federally mandated fuel efficiency standards. Unfortunately, some government policies currently promote this inefficiency. A current tax loophole actually allows up to a $75,000 business tax credit for the purchase of an SUV, compared with only a $2,000 deduction allowed for a hybrid-electric vehicle (from State of the World 2004, Worldwatch Institute).

The U.S. Department of Energy Web site, “fueleconomy.gov,” states that our level of dependence on oil imports is now 55 percent, the highest in our history. From 65 percent to 75 percent of the world’s oil reserves are concentrated in the Middle East, and the site notes that each “oil price shock” in the past three decades has been followed by an economic recession in the United States. The Web site encourages consumers to take an interest in fuel economy, which will give carmakers incentive to produce cleaner, more energy-efficient vehicles in the future.

That is precisely the logic that Aaron Revere is using as he plans to expand the hybrid SUV fleet of his company, East-West Partners. If people buy the new fuel efficient cars, that will also help reduce the air pollution that contributes to the degradation of the Lake Tahoe ecosystem and its world famous water quality.