California air regulator linked to car and oil firms
Dan Sperling, second from right, at press conference with Gov. Schwarzenegger in January.
It is barely two weeks since the California Air Resources Board disappointed electric car advocates when it voted to lower the number of Zero Emission Vehicles required by its program. The cost to the car industry was cited at the time as a prime reason for the reduction.
Today the spotlight returns to the powerful California agency with an article in the LA Times that exposes the links between Board Member Dan Sperling's UC Institute and auto and oil companies. Sperling, a one-time advocate of electric cars, says he saw the effects of advocating positions at odds with the preferences of industry.
"I lost funding [for the institute] from the Detroit car companies for many years, and I realized I should not be taking those policy positions unless it was really well-grounded," he said. Well over half of the private contributions to the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis come from the car and oil industries. Most of its funding comes from the government, including CARB.
Sperling has become a forceful advocate for the Gov. Schwarzenegger's hydrogen highway project and the automakers' preferred zero-emission vehicle type: those with hydrogen fuel cell. The powerful Board has been the center of controversy since the previous Chair, Robert Sawyer, was fired by Gov. Schwarzenegger last year.
[Source: Los Angeles Times, photo source: UC Davis]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mike 5:38PM (4/11/2008)
FBI AGAIN reports Saudi Link to 9/11 terrorists and CONTINUED funding of terror groups. Now, is the time for 20% electric cars in 10 Years!
Time to give the bastards some economic hurt.
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mike 5:44PM (4/11/2008)
Lobbyists make our country: The United States of Corporate America.
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mike 5:44PM (4/11/2008)
Lobbyists make our country: The United States of Corporate America.
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Mark 5:59PM (4/11/2008)
Not surprising. Anyone that kills/reduces the chances for electric cars to become mainstream is linked to the oil and car industries.
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Tim 6:00PM (4/11/2008)
So Dan Sperling has a conflict of interest. I guess Monday will be his last day at the UC Institute?
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Tim 6:06PM (4/11/2008)
Then again, it is UC Davis which is a VERY liberal institution so he'll probably just get a big raise for pandering to big oil and big auto for $Millions in H2 promotion money.
What a whore!
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ug 1:11AM (4/12/2008)
"FBI AGAIN reports Saudi Link to 9/11 terrorists and CONTINUED funding of terror groups. Now, is the time for 20% electric cars in 10 Years!
Time to give the bastards some economic hurt."
That will just means there will be more oil for the bottomless well of Chindia.
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Lad 6:45PM (4/11/2008)
Good to see a paper follow up on this lead; This is a definite conflict of interest; Remember this if nothing else: The hydrogen car is a red herring, created during the time of the EV-1 to divert interest away from the one thing Big Oil fears the most...the BEV. So they bought another weak sister on the ARB; nothing new; When Wilson was governor they bought him and had him replace the ARB chairman which killed the ZEV and thus the EV-1. Big Oil has been controlling energy in this country for decades and they will do anything to continue that control including buying anyone who can be bought. These are men whose value systems is attached to their wallets. I don't see how this guy has the guts to show up at UC Davis anymore since he has lost his whole face in the eyes of the students.
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Kevin Nugent 8:40PM (4/11/2008)
come on now , bring on the heat ! They want us to live off of oil forever so that we can get poorers and poorer while they get richer and richer.
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Yanquetino 8:53PM (4/11/2008)
Yyyyyessss! It's about time a major newspaper spilled these beans!
Have you ever wondered why hydrogen fool-cell vehicles are given more gold "credits" than EVs in CARB's ZEV mandates? Who in the world came up with that inequity?
Now you know.
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Ron Fischer 2:57AM (4/12/2008)
The modified ZEV rules DID increase support for plug-in hybrids. I would have preferred more support for pure BEVs, but plug-ins are a step in the right direction.
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Niralisherni 5:44AM (4/12/2008)
Dilution of upto 90% was feared whereas it was only 70% finally, so maybe the oil and auto lobby is a little less powerful than it was. Certainly a step in the right direction.
-http://www.zapworld.com
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Ben Brown 9:41AM (4/12/2008)
Every gallon of oil imported from the Middle East funds people who: a.wish we would stay in the Middle East forever? b.would like to send us flowers. c. hope we continue to send them increasing amounts of our national budget?
UC Davis should be getting letters of disappointment as well as the governor as well as CARB. This is absolutely w/out doubt WRONG. The CARB vote was a mis-vote that needs to be taken again with those linked to oil and auto interests removed!
This is SO much like the slavery issue in Europe. 25% of the economy depended on the industry and the entire country was promised to fail if the paradigm shifted all at once to an unknown economy not based on slavery. Political interests held the government from acting while the country became more and more depenedent on slavery. The absolutely feared happend and don't you know the economy rebounded and became stronger with the complete elimination of slavery! If CARB supports electric vehicles we won't die, if fact it will be the opposite. It will a part of the flowering and prosperity of our country. As it stands under oil, coal and the auto industry we are dying (or coming back psychologically/ physically injured.)
CARB was wrong and it needs to admit it not next year, but NOW!!!!
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mike 11:22AM (4/12/2008)
Oil is Fungible UNTIL it Isn't.
First, you require a 20% electric fleet, the 50%, then 100%. Then, if you wish to sell a vehicle in the US it Has to be electric. After that, no auto industry in the world can ignore the fact that if you build a car it's got to be electric.
Electric engines are NOW more powerful and more efficient, and the fuel source will always be plentiful, cleaner then carbon based fuels and cheaper.
The Tipping Point HAS TIPPED.
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brian hague 2:56AM (4/13/2008)
Things an electric car doesn't have:
Engine Oil
Oil Filters
Gasoline/Diesel
Exhaust System
Air Filters (except for pollen)
Fuel Filters
Things an electric car has in common with ICE cars:
Transmission Fluid (modern ones do...)
Brakes (although they don't wear as quickly)
Tires
Batteries
Electronic controls
So they're not completely free from oil, just a boatload more per car...
Think about how much you spend on oil changes, brakes, filters, etc. and remove that from your monthly budget. Add batteries to your budget. The electric car will still win out, even if they start charging a road tax on the electricity you put in it.
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Sankovich 12:47PM (5/02/2008)
This is another example of our elected leaders selling us out to BIG OIL. We won't have oil independence until the oil companies have a substitute they can meter into our fuel tanks. Why would we complicate the energy end of an electric motor by using a fuel-cell. BRING BACK THE EV1!!!
If they had been kept in production, can you imagine what advances there would have been?!?!?
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