Report: 12-state ‘Clean Car’ effort<br> is stronger than U.S. plans

As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ponders whether to allow the 12-state Clean Car Program to move forward, a local advocacy group has issued a report showing it would do far more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions than anything the federal government is contemplating.
The report, by the Environment Rhode Island Research & Policy Center, says the tough auto emissions standards already adopted by Rhode Island and 11 other states – but not yet enacted because the EPA won’t grant a needed waiver – would reduce global warming emissions by 392 million metric tons by 2020.
That’s the equivalent of taking 74 million of today’s cars off the road for an entire year, the report says, and more than the emissions produced by Ireland, Austria, Sweden and 170 other countries today.
“The argument is extremely strong. The program is clearly more protective of public health than the national standards,” said Matt Auten, an advocate for Environment Rhode Island. “Our report really captures that what the states are doing are not demonstration programs. They will create globally significant cuts.”
The report, titled “The Clean Cars Program: How States are Driving Cuts in Global Warming Pollution” and available at EnvironmentRhodeIsland.org, was released last month as the EPA prepared to hold two public hearings on a pending request by California for a waiver that would toughen emissions standards for cars built in model year 2009 and later.
By 2015, cars would be required to emit 34 percent less pollution on average, and light-truck manufacturers would have to cut pollution by 25 percent.
Under federal law, only California can set its own tailpipe emissions limits in addition to those set by the EPA, but it needs an EPA waiver to do so. Other states may then adopt the EPA standards or the California ones. Rhode Island adopted California’s standards in January 2006, but the standards can’t be implemented until the EPA approves California’s waiver.
The request has been pending for 18 months already.
“EPA’s decision to grant or deny California’s waiver request is critical to the interests of the State of Rhode Island and critical to our ability to minimize the impacts associated with climate change,” Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch said in a news release before going to testify at the first EPA hearing.
The hearings were scheduled after the U.S. Supreme Court, in considering a lawsuit to which Rhode Island was party, ruled that the EPA wasn’t doing its job in regulating carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants from cars. The EPA has said it can’t regulate emissions without affecting gas mileage standards, which are controlled by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Auto makers and dealers opposed to the Clean Cars Program have cited the DOT issue, among others, in lawsuits against Rhode Island, California and Vermont. But Environment Rhode Island sees improved gas mileage as yet another major benefit of the program.
“The standards could reduce gasoline consumption by as much as 8.3 billion gallons per year in 2020 – as much as is consumed by all the vehicles in Florida in a year,” the report states.
Additionally, it says, “consumers could save up to $25.8 billion annually at the pump in 2020.”
Another six states are considering the program, and if they adopted it, the report says, total emissions would be reduced by 100 million metric tons per year by 2020, and gasoline consumption could drop by a total of 11.2 billion gallons in 2020, saving $34.7 billion.
“States’ adoption of the Clean Cars Program can reduce global warming pollution, cut energy use, and save money for consumers,” the report says. “The federal government should not interfere with the progress being made by these states and should grant California’s request for a Clean Air Act waiver so that the states can implement the Clean Cars Program.”
The report also notes the seriousness of the climate change problem:
“The first signs of warming are evident worldwide, and additional changes will have serious impacts on our nation’s future. Temperatures are rising, with 2006 the second-hottest year on record in the United States. Worldwide, 11 of the years from 1995 to 2006 rank among the 12 warmest years on record. Sea level has risen 6.7 inches in the past century.”
The number of major hurricanes has increased substantially, the report notes, and higher sea levels could flood coastal areas and raise the salinity of drinking water supplies. Future temperature increases and changes in precipitation patterns could change the distribution of plants and change crop productivity, and public health may suffer “as heat-related deaths rise and insect-borne diseases spread.”
In his news release, Lynch said states that want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have no choice but to go with the California standards, because “EPA has not created any standards.”
“EPA has steadfastly ignored its obligation to regulate greenhouse gases from cars or power plants, even going so far as saying that carbon dioxide is not an air pollutant,” Lynch said. “So if a state genuinely wants to reduce greenhouse gases from car engines, the state must choose the California standards.”