Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 102 Part 3.djvu/489

 PUBLIC LAW 100-494—OCT. 14, 1988

Public Law 100-494 100th Congress

102 STAT. 2441

An Act To amend the Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act to provide for the appropriate treatment of methanol and ethanol, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the "Alternative Motor Fuels Act of 1988". SEC 2. FINDINGS.

The Congress finds and declares that— (1) the achievement of long-term energy security for the United States is essential to the health of the national economy, the well-being of our citizens, and the maintenance of national security; (2) the displacement of energy derived from imported oil with alternative fuels will help to achieve energy security and improve air quality; (3) transportation uses account for more than 60 percent of the oil consumption of the Nation; (4) the Nation's security, economic, and environmental interests require that the Federal Government should assist clean-burning, nonpetroleum transportation fuels to reach a threshold level of commercial application and consumer acceptability at which they can successfully compete with petroleum-based fuels; (5) methanol, ethanol, and natural gas are proven transportation fuels that bum more cleanly and efficiently than gasoline and diesel fuel; (6) the production and use as transportation fuels of ethanol, methanol made from natural gas or biomass, and compressed natural gas have been estimated in some studies to release less carbon dioxide than comparable quantities of petroleum-based fuel; (7) the amount of carbon dioxide released with methanol from a coal-to-methanol industry using currently available technolc^es has been estimated in some studies to be significantly greater than the amount released with a comparable quantity of petroleum-based fuel; (8) there exists evidence that manmade pollution—the release of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, methane, and other trace gases into the atmosphere—may be producing a long term and substantial increase in the average temperature on Earth, a phenomenon known as global warming through the greenhouse effect; and

Oct. 14, 1988 [S. 1518]

Alternative Motor Fuels Act of 1988. Chemicals. Energy. 42 USC 6201 note. 42 USC 6374 note.

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