California will be first state in the country to set emission-regulation standards for the auto industry. Opponents, which include car dealers and the auto industry, say they are about to be “violated” by the bill.
Rachelle Kuchta/Special to The Malibu Times
In a historic moment that may place California as a leader in setting national, perhaps even world, standards for regulating greenhouse gas emissions, Gov. Gray Davis signed a state Assembly bill Monday that will reduce carbon dioxide and other gases from the exhaust of noncommercial vehicles in an effort to combat global warming.
State Assemblymember Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) introduced the controversial bill, which has been the focus of an intense political battle between environmentalists and business interests and could lead to changes in the design of cars sold throughout the country. The Senate passed it by one vote last month.
The signing of the bill has been reported in all the country’s major newspapers, highlighting the importance of the precedent-setting regulations.
“I am extraordinarily proud of Gov. Davis for standing up to enormous pressure from the auto industry and oil companies who waged war against this bill,” Pavley said. “Today is another giant step toward cleaner air for all Californians and serves as a model for our country to follow.”
The bill, which is the first of its kind in the world, requires the California Air Resources Control Board (CARB) to adopt regulations that achieve “maximum feasible” reductions in greenhouse gas emissions for passenger cars, minivans, pickups and sport-utility vehicles, starting with 2009 models.
“California has the fifth largest economy in the world. Fifty-eight percent of the state’s greenhouse gases come from passenger vehicles. We must do our share of reducing greenhouse gases,” Pavley said.
This go-ahead from the governor is the last step in a grueling process Pavley has endured over the past 18 months, battling a multimillion dollar opposition campaign led mainly by the auto industry, full of what she calls “outrageous claims,” “scare tactics” and “misinformation.”
While Pavley says the bill will “simply improve air quality and begin reduction of gas emissions,” members of the Coalition Against AB 1493 say they are about to be violated.
The coalition says it is united against the bill as a “vague, extreme measure giving broad new powers to the CARB, limiting consumer choice and significantly increasing the cost of buying and driving vehicles in California.”
“Opponents of this bill say the sky is falling,” the governor said Monday. “But they said it about unleaded gasoline. They said it about catalytic converters. They said it about seat belts and air bags. But the sky is not falling. It’s just getting a whole lot cleaner.”
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a coalition member, states the bill is simply too extreme for California.
“It would hurt low-income Californians the worst, because it would dramatically increase the costs of driving for everyone regardless of income,” the alliance said in a press release.
The Coalition Against AB 1493 includes such organizations as the California Chamber of Commerce, the United Auto Workers, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the California Motor Car Dealer Association and the California Taxpayers Association.
Opponents of the bill now have 90 days to collect about 420,000 signatures of registered voters to challenge it at the polls.
However, according to the nonprofit group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), studies by the National Academy of Sciences, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S. Department of Energy and the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy show that cost-effective technologies exist to cut CO2 pollution.
“Certainly by 2009, California will be able to come up with a lot of cost-reductive strategies,” Pavley stated.
“This isn’t rocket science,” said Craig Noble, the NRDC’s director of San Francisco communications.
The NRDC, which is one of three co-sponsors of the bill (with the Coalition for Clean Air and Bluewater Network), said the Bush Administration’s energy plan is guided heavily by coal and oil company lobbyists and would lead to increased emissions from fossil fuels while providing minimal support for cleaner alternatives.
Although Pavley believes “the public generally is convinced that we need to look at alternative fuel in order to lower our dependence on foreign oil,” she said she thinks the Bush Administration feels that “voluntary measures will suffice” for right now.
“This vote sends a clear message to Washington that California refuses to sacrifice our children’s future on an altar to oil industry profits, said Russell Long, executive director of Bluewater Network.
“The American auto [industry] needs to step up to the plate,” Noble said, noting the advances by Honda with their hybrid Civic and Insight and the Toyota Prius.
Noble said now Ford, GM and DaimlerChrysler have announced plans to produce fuel-efficient hybrid SUVs that emit less carbon pollution within the next few years.
But, Noble said hybrids are not the end of the road in terms of clean car technology.
“In the long run, we’re looking forward to the widespread availability of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles,” he added.
In California, transportation is responsible for 59 percent of the greenhouse gas pollution, compared to 31 percent for the nation as a whole, according to Bluewater Network. There are 35 million cars in California, making it the country’s largest auto market. But the state produces something less than 1 percent of the globe’s greenhouse-gas output.
Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases-mainly water vapor, nitrous oxide and methane-are so named because they act like a greenhouse’s glass panels, trapping some of the sun’s radiation reflected by Earth and raising the atmospheric temperature.
Carbon dioxide is produced when an engine burns fossil fuel such as gasoline, and the easiest way to reduce such emissions is to make vehicles go farther on a gallon of gas.
“Acting decisively and showing leadership is what California has always done,” Gov. Davis concluded. “We don’t often have a chance to vote for or sign a bill we are positive will be remembered long after we are gone. We can be sure we will have earned the gratitude of Californians and other Americans who will follow us.”