(Photo of traffic on Lake Cook Road in Buffalo Grove, Ill., from Flickr and photographer Isipeoria)
Weekly Angst: It’s outrageous. Did you know auto manufacturers make two versions of each model. Some spew more smog-causing hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide, more carbon monoxide and particulates than others. It all depends on what state you live in and whether it has adopted California’s clean-car regulations. If it hasn’t, you get the dirty kind.
Conn., Maine, Md., Mass., N.J., N.Y., Ore., Pa. R.I., Vt., and Wash. have all adopted the California law. They’ve seen a change in air quality. Ariz., Colo., Fla., Ill., Iowa, Minn., N.M. and Utah have it under consideration. And environmental groups are pushing those states to pass the law, even though the U.S. EPA has blocked the latest change, reducing CO2. (Another outrage.)
Many believe the EPA will be overruled by the courts, or a new administration, or the bill introduced by Senate Environment Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), and states that adopt California’s law may soon be able to regulate greenhouse gases too, more stringently than the federal CAFE law allows.
The California standards cut greenhouse-gas tailpipe emissions 30% by 2016, though the EPA-forced lag may change that because it was supposed to start with the 2009 model.
The Sierra Club and other environmental groups are asking for e-mails or calls to your state reps to co-sponsor and support a clean car bill. In Illinois you can do that through the Environmental Law and Policy Center's action network.
Clean cars for Illinois
Illinois is No. 6 in emitting greenhouse gases in the U.S.A. Not a record you want to have. Education maybe, or employment, but not No. 6 in GHG. And transportation contributes about 28% of the global warming pollution in the state.
When Illinois passes a clean car bill, it might cause a tipping point, advocates say, benefiting the entire country. A populous state, with 9 million cars on the road, a victory here could lead to manufacturers deciding it no longer pays to make two versions and all their cars could become cleaner.
The bill in Illinois (H.B 3424) has passed out of committee with House Speaker Michael Madigan (D) as a co-sponsor. It requires 2011 models to meet the stricter emissions standards, which would reduce GHG an estimated 18% by 2020 and 27% by 2030.
Global Warming Solutions Act
The clean car bill is also part of a larger package called the Illinois Global Warming Solutions Act (S.B. 2220). A shell bill, with the details not yet revealed, the Solutions Act also will deal with power plants, efficiency and cap-and-trade. It contains major recommendations from the Illinois Climate Change Advisory Group, appointed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), and helps meet goals of the Midwest Governors Conference. (Stay tuned for more on this package.)
RES already law
If you’re wondering about a renewable electricity standard for Illinois, one was already passed last year. Advocates took advantage of the electric utilities’ request for a rate hike and added in an RES that increases the proportion of renewable energy 2% a year until 2015 and then 1.5% until it reaches 25% in 2025. One caveat though – the changes have to stay within the rate cap set for the utility. Many other states have passed their own RES, which is good because while the U.S. House passed one mandating 15% by 2020, the Senate has rejected it. (Sources: Environment Illinois, Sierra Club, Environmental Law & Policy Center)
1 comment:
It's somewhat misleading to say Illinois is No. 6 in GHG emissions in the USA as if to imply that the state is a laggard. Illinois is No. 6 in GHG emissions (No. 7 by some measures) largely because of its size and level of economic activity. It is No. 5 in the USA in terms of population and No. 5 in terms of GDP. The Illinois economy by that measure is larger than that of Belgium or Sweden.
According to the World Resources Institute, Illinois's per capita emissions tie for Michigan as the lowest in the Midwest and are 9 percent less than the U.S. average, largely because of our heavy nuclear power grid component. However, our GHG emissions from electricity generation have been the fastest-growing sector of our total emissions (I am not sure why; I have to check, but I believe this is because increased electrical consumption relies less on nukes and disproportionately on fossil fuels).
That's not to say that Illinois should not do more -- we should be a leader -- only to say that the total picture should be looked at, and various sectors put in perspective.
The transportation sector has only just recently become responsible, as we now measure, for a plurality of GHG emissions, and consumers' cars make up only a fraction of the "transportation sector" emissions. Commercial transportation is the majority, so the focus on consumer VMT is somewhat a red herring, although it is a necessary part of the equation. Moreover, manufacturing a new car, even a Prius, has an enormous carbon footprint that often is larger than what the consumer will burn up in gasoline during their ownership. SO rushing out and buying new cars is not the answer.
The greatest immediate cost-efficient reductions in GHG can come from how we buy and use consumer electronics, more efficient appliances, and other less-intuitive reducers. There needs to be far greater focus on industrial and commercial use of energy, and on consumption overall of manufactured products. This is not to say that cars of the future should not be cleaner -- they should be, and we need far greater emphasis on mass transit where that's feasible. But electronics chargers, just to single out one source, have probably been overall responsible for a greater amount of Illinois GHG increase in the last decade than cars have been. No one seems to get as exercised about that, though.
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