Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The regulatory and policy measures bore
fruit. The LPG technology for taxis was very
mature at the time of adoption. The scheme did
not encounter major technological and market
constraints as experienced by the zero-emission
fuel cell vehicles in California. The rapid adoption
of LPG taxis makes it a rather successful case of
TEI adoption in Hong Kong (Hills, Gouldson and
Welford, 2008). Together with other policy mea-
sures introduced to reduce road-based transport
emissions, some success in terms of emission
reduction had been witnessed. Compared with
1999, the roadside concentrations of the major air
pollutant emissions, namely respirable suspended
particulates (RSP) and nitrogen oxides (NOx),
reduced by 22% and 23% respectively in 2008.
The number of smoky vehicles spotted dropped
by about 80% (EPD, 2005).
standards. In California's ZEBus Regulation, the
emission standard is set at zero. It poses a really
big challenge and forces the industry to seek
the most innovative environmental solutions.
The certainty of mandatory regulations makes it
impossible for stakeholders to hold on to the wait-
and-see attitude towards TEI. As evident in both
case studies, the pressure accelerated stakeholders
work out the solution in a concerted manner. The
affected regulated parties would not want to risk
the cost of non-compliance. In California, any
fleet which exceeds the emission requirements
will not be allowed to operate on the street; and
in Hong Kong, the early announcement of more
stringent standards sent a strong message to the
taxi trade that old diesel taxi fleets would soon be
phased out. Without the regulatory force, it would
have taken much longer and be more difficult to
unite relevant stakeholders to work together and
get them agree on the same goal, especially when
they have very diverse vested interests.
Highly incentive-based
: The regulations in
both cases are complemented by financial and
economic incentives. Under the California ZEBus
Regulation, the demonstration of zero-emission
buses is heavily funded by the federal or other
levels of the government. Credit awards accrue
to transit agencies that are early adopters of
ZEBuses. In Hong Kong, the purchase of LPG
taxis as anticipated by progressive tightening of
relevant Air Pollution Control regulations was
partially subsidized in the form of one-off grants
and fuel differentials. These incentive packages
have been introduced to support the stringent
regulatory requirements. As financial obstacle is
a big hurdle to TEIs, especially for radical inno-
vation like zero-emission fuel cell buses, which
are very costly given its technological and market
immaturity, the provision of financial incentives
is critical to the success of TEIs in both cases.
Highly information-coupled:
The adoption of
TEI involves changing not only the technology
but also the operation patterns, the skill set of
supporting staff and cost-effectiveness assess-
COMPARING TEI PROMOTING
REGULATIONS IN CALIFORNIA
AND HONG KONG
The discussion in Section 5.1 and 5.2 compares
and contrasts the TEI promoting regulations in
California and Hong Kong. Section 5.1 identi-
fies the similarities shared by two regulations
in TEI promoting regulatory characteristics that
prompted the successful development and adop-
tion of cleaner fuel transport technologies in
California and Hong Kong. Section 5.2 identifies
the differences they displayed.
Similarities in TEI Promoting
Regulatory Characteristics
Both the ZEBus Regulation in California and the
Air Pollution Control Regulations in relation to
diesel-to-LPG scheme introduced in Hong Kong
are strong in stringency, certainty, incentive-based,
information-coupling and capability-enhancing:
Highly stringent and certain:
Innovation
