United States Legislative Updates

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House Committee Passes Event Date Recorders for Autos

On May 26, 2010, the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved H.R. 5381, the Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010. The legislation will increase NHTSA's expertise in electronics and establishes new safety standards to protect against unintended acceleration. The bill establishes a new Center for Vehicle Electronics and Emerging Technologies within NHTSA; requires new safety standards related to electronics and unintended acceleration, including a brake-override standard; calls on NHTSA to consider standards to prevent pedals from getting trapped in floor mats or other obstructions as well as standards for electronic systems performance; and requires that all vehicles be equipped with event data recorders that record crash information. Information contained in the data recorder will be the property of the owner or lessee.  This is intended to limit retrieval of data by any a person other than the owner or lessee except under limited circumstances, including by a court order, if the owner or lessee consents to the retrieval or by request of a government agency.

Energy Bill Expected in the Senate

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) is expected to introduce an energy bill in the near future to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through increased energy efficiency and fuel standards. His "Practical Energy and Climate Plan" will be offered as an alternative to the Kerry-Lieberman climate/energy bill and focuses on energy standards rather than capping and pricing greenhouse gas emissions. It would require an incremental increase in Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards starting in 2016; automakers would be required to increase energy efficiency by four percent each year. It also would establish fuel efficiency standards for medium and heavy duty vehicles, which would be tightened every four years. It also includes several provisions for encouraging biofuel and renewable energy production. The bill would not directly put a price on carbon emissions, a method of curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

Electric Vehicle Bills Introduced

Bills have been introduced in the U.S. House and Senate to reduce oil dependence by funding programs to put hundreds of thousands of electric drive cars and trucks on the road over the next five years. U.S. Representatives Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Judy Biggert (R-Ill.), Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) introduced the Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010, while Senators Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) introduced a companion bill, the Electric Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010.

The bipartisan bills would establish new funding to support efforts in five communities to work with industry, electric utilities and other organizations to deploy electric drive vehicles, including plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles.