Virginia Can Save $7 Billion and Reduce Global
Warming Pollution
Washington, DC – Tomorrow, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency will hear testimony on allowing 14 states to move forward on strong
clean cars standards that the Bush administration had been blocking. If Virginia
adopted the same standards, we would reduce global warming pollution from cars
by 36.4 million metric tons by 2020. And from reduced gasoline consumption, Virginians
would save $7 billion by 2020 at the pump, according to analysis by Environment
Virginia.
If all states opted into
the clean cars program, the global warming pollution savings would reach the
equivalent of eliminating the carbon dioxide pollution from all of the
registered cars and light trucks in the country for an entire year and save
Americans almost $260 billion at the pump by 2020.
“President Obama
campaigned on a 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. Just days after
taking office, the president gave the keys to EPA to start clean cars so we can
stop global warming and unlock billions in savings at the pump.” said JR
Tolbert, Advocate for Environment Virginia. “Now is the time for Virginia to
demonstrate leadership in solving the crisis of global warming. Adopting the clean cars program would
be a strong first step to breaking our addiction to oil and other
carbon-emitting fossil fuels.”
Background:
- Passenger vehicles are
the second largest source of global warming emissions nationwide.
- The Clean Air Act allows
(1) California to set auto emissions standards that are stronger than federal
standards (no such standards currently exist); and (2) other states to adopt
California’s auto emissions standards.
To implement the standards, EPA must issue California a waiver of
federal preemption, an action the agency has taken many times in the last four
decades for
innovations like catalytic converters.
- In 2005, California
adopted first-of-their-kind standards requiring cars and light-duty trucks to
limit emissions that contribute to global warming. The standards would cut global warming emissions from passenger
vehicles by 30 percent by 2016. A
total of 13 other states—Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont,
and Washington, plus the District of Columbia —have adopted the tailpipe
standards. Several additional
states are actively considering adopting the standards.
- In March 2008, in an
unprecedented action, the Bush administration denied California’s waiver
request, blocking the states’ global warming emissions tailpipe standards.
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Environment Virginia is a statewide,
citizen-based environmental advocacy organization.
