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After the Governor Sells Out On Requiring Electric and Hydrogen Cars in CA The Air Resources Board Reclassifies Gasoline Cars as "Clean"
by Paul Fenn
August 29, 2003
In a depressingly symbolic year for climate change, energy policy and
public health, just a week after GM recalled the last cars its entire
California fleet of 1000 Zero Emission electric vehicles to be destroyed
(citing a "lack of demand"), and during the same year by which California
air regulators had since 1990 required that 10% of all new cars be
pollution free had not Governor Davis lifted the requirement upon taking
office - state air regulators have come out with a new standard for rating
new cars that instead re-classifies gasoline-burning engines as "clean."
Say hello to the "Partial Zero Emission Vehicle," ("P-ZEV") a
characteristically Moderate Democratic nomenclature to which the California
Air Resources Board (CARB) and Detroit automakers have agreed - a watered
down version of the "Zero Emmission Vehicles" classification following
Governor Davis' post-election decision to eliminate a 1990 requirement
that, starting in 2003, 10% of all cars sold in California should have
been Zero Emission Vehicles ("ZEV").
Following the Governor's lead, new regulations have been approved that
classify gas automobiles as "Partial Zero Emission Vehicles" ("P-ZEV"). The
settlement is a victory for the gasoline-powered engine. After Governor
Davis' unilaterally eliminated a highly popular ZEV rule for political
reasons, the CARB has negotiated a new standard for ZEV that classifies
internal combustion, gasoline-burning cars as "clean."
"We don't agree with mandated approaches to automotive technology, but the
2003 regulation might have the flexibility we've been asking for," says GM
spokesman Dave Barthmuss. In other words, automakers can make P-ZEVs, with
an assist from gas-electric hybrids and assorted credits accumulated from
golf cart sales and alternative-fuel research to easily account for10
percent of vehicle sales within the next decade.
P-ZEV includes internal combustion engines and thus satisfies the
automobile and oil industries. In fact, the new CARB agreement is a tacit
acceptance that California's Moderate Democratic Leadership has killed the
alternative-fuel revolution . CARB, California's environmental regulatory
body, required in 1990 that automakers must build alternate-fuel,
zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). By this year, CARB had decreed, ten percent
of vehicle sales must be electric cars or hydrogen-fueled vehicles. When
the edict was lifted by Governor Davis, Detroit was free to continue with
business as usual, so that neither will sell anywhere near 10 percent of
all vehicles unless new leadership reinstates some version of the 1990 ZEV
rule. With Democrats like Davis who needs a Republican?
GM's recent decision to recall and destroy every single EV-1, a highly
popular all-electric sports car with an excellent performance record and
hugely popular among owners, is illustrative. Claiming it was destroying
the cars based on a "lack of demand," as if this had nothing to do with
Governor Davis' lifting of the 1990 requirement, GM threatened to destroy
the credit ratings of any EV-1 drivers who refused to give up their cars.
In August EV-1 owners held a mock funeral procession for the EV-1 in Los
Angeles.
For more information, visit local.org
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