EPA can jump start Clean Cars to fight global warming

Environment Colorado

Tomorrow, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will hear testimony on allowing 14 states to move forward on a strong clean cars standard that the Bush administration had been blocking.

“Just days after taking office, President Obama gave EPA the keys to jump start our country’s fight against global warming by starting clean cars,” said Keith Hay, energy advocate for Environment Colorado.  “Not only does this turn over the fight on global warming, it will unlock billions in savings at the pump. President Obama is delivering on his vision of a clean energy economy that helps the United States solve global warming, frees us from dependence on oil, and puts Americans to work in good jobs.”

If Colorado joins this group and adopts the same standards, Colorado would cut global warming pollution from cars by 19.4 million metric tons by 2020, an amount equal to removing 3.6 million cars from the road for a year. And from reduced gasoline consumption, Coloradans would save $3.4 billion by 2020 at the pump, according to analysis by Environment Colorado.

If the EPA adopted or Congress passed a national clean cars program, the global warming pollution savings would reach the equivalent of eliminating the carbon dioxide pollution from all of the cars and light trucks registered in the country for an entire year and save Americans almost $260 billion at the pump by 2020.

Background on the Clean Cars Program:

• The clean cars program would cut global warming emissions from passenger vehicles by 30 percent by 2016.  A total of 14 states including, Arizona, New Mexico, Connecticut, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, plus the District of Columbia, have adopted the tailpipe standards.  Several additional states, including Utah and Colorado, are considering adopting the standards. 

• Implementing the clean cars program in Colorado would reduce global warming pollution by 19.4 million metric tons, an amount equivalent to 3.6 million of today’s cars from Colorado’s roads for a year.  In addition, the standard will reduce oil consumption, saving drivers $3.4 billion at the pump by 2020. 

• According to the state’s Colorado Climate Action Plan and analysis done by Environment Colorado in A Bueprint for Action, passenger vehicles are the second largest source of global warming pollution in Colorado. The report can be downloaded from the following website: http://www.environmentcolorado.org/reports/global-warming/global-warming-reports/a-blueprint-for-action-meeting-colorados-goals-for-reducing-global-warming-pollution.

• In March 2008, in an unprecedented action, the Bush administration denied a waiver request by state’s seeking to implement the clean cars program, blocking the states’ global warming emissions tailpipe standards.