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'Clean Cars' Debate Pits Cost Against Health
"You will hear Chicken Little testify that the sky will fall if we enact these changes," said Sen. Brian E. Frosh, pictured in 2005.
(By James M. Thresher -- The Washington Post)
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As automakers challenge California's law in court, North Carolina, Arizona and New Mexico are considering similar bills. In his State of the Union address, President Bush called for tougher mileage standards for cars and light trucks.
But no state can serve as a test case for Maryland consumers, because the carbon dioxide rules, the controversial change in the bill, are not yet in effect in other states.
Maryland accounts for 2 percent of the nation's new car and truck market, about 350,000 vehicles a year.
Catalytic converters in cars made today filter smog-forming particles, but the best way to reduce carbon dioxide and other gases that might contribute to climate change is to use less fossil fuel, scientists say. That means fuel economy would need to improve, to 43 miles a gallon from the current average of 22.2 miles a gallon for light trucks and 27.5 for passenger cars, officials said.
Industry officials, pointing to the growing popularity of hybrids in Maryland, said lawmakers should give buyers more incentives to buy alternative-fuel cars.
'"We're educating lawmakers that the best way to do this is to bring cleaner, safer and more fuel-efficient vehicles to the market," said Charles Territo, spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.
But environmental groups say those technologies represent a fraction of car sales and won't do enough to curb pollution.
"Alternative-fuel cars should be part of the picture, but you can't reduce global warming as much as you need to with just those fuels," said Brad Heavner, state director for Environment Maryland.
