It is important to note that there is another side to the story that is not being told about the recent legislation (AB 1493) that Governor Davis just signed into law, Monday, July 22. The new law was written with the goal of reducing CO2 emissions in light truck and SUV vehicles in the state of California by 2009.
The problem with the new law is that it will have such a minuscule impact on reducing CO2 emissions in California, it hardly seems worth the effort. If we were to pass a law banning all cars from the highways in California effective today, it would only reduce CO2 emissions by less than .1 percent worldwide. What then will be the benefit of this law just signed; less than .01 percent, .001 percent, or even less?
The auto industry is up in arms over this new law because they claim that it will be impossible to engineer such cars at a similar cost of manufacturing. Thus, the result will be your $25,000 Explorer costing $35,000, or your $20,000 Ford Ranger costing $30,000. While no one wants to see the price of cars increase, I think most of us could stomach such increases if they were to dramatically improve air quality, safety, etc. Unfortunately, this bill does none of the above. In fact, it has been suggested that the impact will be for consumers to hang onto their older model trucks rather than purchase the newer, more expensive models. The effects of which are predictable: lower sales equals the loss of automotive jobs, damage to the economy and perhaps truck dealers taking business elsewhere.
All of this for a potential CO2 reduction of much less than .1 percent? This type of legislation just doesn’t seem to make sense. Especially when you consider the other more pressing problems facing our state currently, such as a $20 billion budget deficit, declining educational results, issues of public safety and an ever-increasing traffic crisis.
I hope this November we can send a message to our elected representatives that we would like them to begin focusing on the issues that we all feel need to be addressed that actually solve problems, not just the issues that they feel need to be addressed that have minimal impact in our lives.
Wells Miller