Calif. steers right course
Fri Jul 26, 6:43 AM ET
Californians love their cars. But they also love their state's natural wonders: the oceanfronts, the mountains, the vistas -- when they're visible through the smog. To keep those views clear, California passed the toughest clean-air law in the nation. Over the last four decades, it has reduced tailpipe pollution by 90%.
Now California is leading the nation again, this time to reduce greenhouse gases that trigger global warming ( news - web sites). Climate change threatens to melt the Sierra snowpacks that provide the state water for drinking and irrigation. The greenhouse effect could also erode shorelines as sea levels rise, trigger wildfires and worsen smog.
This week, Gov. Gray Davis ( news - web sites) signed a bill giving the state Air Resources Board the power to set ''economically feasible'' emissions standards aimed at curbing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. That's a wise move, in spite of hyperbolic claims by car manufacturers that a few California bureaucrats will force all Americans to give up their SUVs and other gas-guzzling vehicles.
The new law not only sets reasonable targets for automakers to meet by 2009, but it also fills a leadership void created by Washington's refusal to tackle global warming.
For the legislation to take effect, though, the state must overcome the auto industry's legal and public relations attacks. It claims California's regulation of greenhouse gases will prompt tighter fuel standards for the entire country, something only the federal government can do. The manufacturers argue that since one in 10 cars is sold in California, fuel mileage requirements imposed there amount to a national standard.
But California has the right -- and the industry has the know-how -- to curb greenhouse gases. And both can do so without resorting to a harsh national fuel standard.
California has long had federal permission to set tougher auto emissions standards than the rest of the country to combat severe smog problems unique to the state's geography. The industry can improve fuel efficiency in small ways that don't require technological breakthroughs -- smoother tires, more sophisticated transmissions, improved aerodynamics. And some greenhouse gases can be cut without tighter mileage standards. Example: emissions escaping from auto air conditioners.
As the state that ranks second in the nation in carbon dioxide emissions, California has strong reasons to fight the pollution that threatens its resources, especially when it's getting so little help from the federal government. President Bush ( news - web sites) opposes the international treaty to reduce greenhouse gases that was signed in Kyoto, Japan, and hasn't offered effective domestic solutions for curbing the emissions.
The new law represents one state's modest attempt to reduce greenhouse gases. For leading the way, California deserves thanks, not lawsuits from carmakers.
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