Emissions Accomplished?

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently considering reversing a Bush administration decision which prevented California (along with 13 other states) from enacting stricter air-pollution standards for motor vehicles. This is great news, not only because of the positive environmental effects the stricter rules would bring about, but simply because it might actually happen!

California has been leading the fight to enact these stricter CO2 regulations for years now and has seen little help from the federal government. However, that was under the Bush administration. Things seem to be changing since Obama took office.

On January 21, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger sent a letter to President Obama requesting that he review the EPA’s denial of California’s waiver request, stating, “California and a growing number of farsighted states have sought to enforce a common-sense policy to reduce global-warming pollution from passenger vehicles, which are the source of 20 percent of our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. Regulation will not only reduce these emissions, but will also save drivers money and reduce our nation’s dependence on foriegn oil… Your administration has a unique opportunity to both support the pioneering leadership of these states and move America toward global leadership on addressing climate change.”

A mere five days after Governor Schwarzenegger sent this letter, President Obama directed federal regulators to review California’s and 13 other states’ request to set automobile emissions and fuel efficency standards. According to the Clean Air Act Section 209 – State Standards, the EPA must grant the waiver unless it finds that California:

-was arbitrary & capricious in its finding that its standards are, in the aggregate, at least as protective of public health and welfare as applicable federal standards;

-does not need such standards to meet compelling and extraordinary conditions; or

-has proposed standards not consistent with Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act

The 13 other states joining California in this fight are: Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Help make this happen – sign the petition urging the EPA to grant the waiver!

Green jobs and cars offer hope for U.S. economy

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson (above, far right) at the 2009 Washington Auto Show

The latest Labor Department buzz-kill report that Uncle Sam shed almost 600,000 jobs in January is beyond depressing. Could there possibly be a silver lining to this relentless economic attrition?

The people who work at I-GO, for our parent company the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and at other green-industry orgs and businesses across the nation think so.

Consider this: Even as the U.S. Senate drags its Bruno Magli heels implementing President Obama’s economic stimulus shot-in-the-arm (an arm—if we’re to torture this metaphor further—that’s showing some serious junky track marks lately), there are two fascinating trade shows taking place in D.C. that are giving off faint whiffs of optimism and future progress: the Good Jobs Green Jobs National Conference and the Washington Auto Show.

Check out the list of keynote speakers at the former, where more than 2,000 labor, environmental and business advocates are schmoozing to shape the national debate about investment in clean energy and green technologies.

When was the last time anyone saw the CEOs of the American Wind Power Association and the Alliance for Climate Protection mingling with the Teamsters and United Steelworkers unions? Strange bedfellows? Not in these radically changing times, folks. I prefer to see it as a hugely promising sign of collaboration between traditional industry and the emerging green vanguard.

Meanwhile, down the block, at the Auto Show, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood (a questionable Obama-cabinet Illinois pol who probably isn’t going to wash that bad Blagojevich taste from our mouths any time soon) and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson (who may prove just as toxic) are virtually red-carpet celebrities. The Big Three is kissing up to D.C. and giving the emissions-control folks all the green they want—as in green cars, not cash.

A US News & World Report article on the Auto Show’s website and another by Washington Post auto industry reporter Warren Brown make it clear that the balance of power and clout have left Detroit and entered the Beltway, presumably for the long haul.

Green cars are all the rage at the show, which prominently featured a Green Car Summit panel discussion and plenty of grinning greenhorns. Automakers and their lobbyists are working the levers to convince policymakers that Detroit is finally heeding the call to build more fuel-efficient cars:

It’s a radical change for an industry that once used its clout to prevent fuel-efficiency laws from passing. “Has the industry lost its power to say no?” Dave McCurdy, president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, asked the Post. “The industry is saying, ‘Yes, however. . . . Yes, let’s work it out.’ It’s a different starting point in the discussion. The nature of the industry has changed.”

Biggest sign of the times at the show: The Chevrolet Volt won the 2009 Green Car Vision Award given by auto enthusiast magazine Green Car Journal. The contestants it beat out included an electric version of the MINI Cooper (OMG, how cute would that be?) and Honda’s FCX Clarity, an all-hydrogen fuel cell sedan (Honda and Toyota—what can you say? ahead of the curve again).

The Volt sounds pretty awesome, though. From the Auto Show’s site:

“The Chevy Volt offers a bold and far-reaching approach that will bring an exceptionally fuel efficient model to consumers at reasonable cost,” says Ron Cogan, editor and publisher of the Green Car Journal and editor of GreenCar.com. “Besides being a great design, the Volt promises exactly what many consumers are asking for – a car capable of driving on zero emission battery power most of the time at pennies per mile, with over 100 mpg possible on longer journeys when electric power from its range extender engine-generator is needed.”

Here’s a slogan I’ll give Chevy for free: “Rock the Volt”

Eh? Pretty good, right?